


The Ties That Bind

by bob_eclipsa_smith



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Anastasia AU, F/M, Gen, I'm also still lame, Inspired by Anastasia (1997), Still Lame
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 22:51:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 22
Words: 75,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12827817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bob_eclipsa_smith/pseuds/bob_eclipsa_smith
Summary: On the eve of Princess Allura's fifth birthday, Zarkon comes to claim the black lion and to end the royal family of Altea. Somehow, little Princess Allura manages to evade Zarkon's wrath, disappearing before he can get his hands on her. Now, twelve years later, a chef named Hunk and a short-tempered, combat genius called Keith stumble upon the amnesiac orphan Lucy and her friends Lance and Katie, unaware of just who Lucy is... and what she's capable of accomplishing.Or, the Anastasia AU that no one asked for.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Well this is for the movie that I fell in love yesterday. I love everything about Anastasia and I couldn't help but see parallels between it and Voltron so...here's how this mess is born.

_Someone was downstairs._

_Alfor's eyes snapped open, staring blatantly at the sloped ceiling of his bedroom. He had had a not-so vague suspicion that one of his paladins of Voltron had been planning a betrayal for a long while. It was a matter of instinct, small noticings and barely perceptible personality changes, marked by small commentary uncharacteristic to the black paladin._

_Alfor sat up in bed, reaching a tremulous hand out to touch the tumbling silver curls of his wife before he went to investigate the noise._

_The image of his best friend and lifelong confidante shimmered at the back of his mind as he quietly padded along the silent hallways of the castle, passing various turns and curves to make his way to the black lion._

_He pushed it away, the semblance of hope that had always been brewing, strengthening with the denial of the simple truth._

_He slowed as he approached the hangar of the black lion, his eyes immediately going to the large figure standing directly below it, seeming to gaze upon its radiance._

_Alfor released a shaky breath, for there was something instinctively different about his best friend._

_“Hello, Alfor.” The scratchy voice itself sent a chill shuddering down Alfor's spine, sent his heart into a flurry of thrumming beats. “It's been a long time since we've spoken face to face.” It wasn't his voice. No. This was the voice of a stranger._

_“Zarkon,” Alfor whispered. “What are you doing here?”_

_“I come for the black lion, Alfor.” He answered, back still to Alfor. “And Voltron.”_

_When he turned, that was finally when Alfor realized in solid clarity...this was not Zarkon._

_At least, it was not the Zarkon that he had known._

_The face was all wrong. Previously calm and kind yellow eyes now shone a menacing, pupil less purple, and his mouth was twisted in a deranged grin, a long shot away from the soft smile he always used to sport. Now, Alfor’s best friend’s monstrous size, a size that Alfor had always used to ceaselessly tease him about, was imposing and demonic. He truly was a monster now._

_“I won't allow you to take Voltron, Zarkon.” Alfor said in deceptive calmness. “You're going to have to pry it from my cold, dead hands. The black lion will not allow this to come to fruition, Zarkon. Not while I am in control.”_

_Something akin to displeasure passed across Zarkon’s gray features, before anger took hold once more. “Perhaps not, old friend,” Zarkon replied. “Perhaps not. But I have sold my soul for this purpose and this purpose only. I promise you, I will return.”_

_Alfor's heart thumped loudly in his chest. “For what purpose?” He asked._

_Zarkon chuckled a mirthless laugh, eyes flashing malignantly. “To claim Voltron and to rule the universe, of course!” He laughed. “And mark my words, Alfor, I will make good on my promise. One day, your family will be dead, and Voltron will be mine.”_

_With a flurry of his cape, Zarkon was gone, and Alfor let out a breath he didn't even realize he had been holding. After glancing one last time at where Zarkon had just been not a moment prior, Alfor tucked his robe protectively around himself, shuddered once, and went back to his room for a sleepless night._


	2. The Swordsman's Apprentice and The Little Princess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allura meets a pair of unlikely new friends.

She didn't initially plan on wandering into this section of Altea, but such was fate’s will and apparently, her own mischievous tendencies to journey into places she was not allowed. Besides, she was certainly more than capable to take care of herself. But her parents, if they were to see her now, would certainly tell her otherwise as they dragged her kicking and screaming back to the confinement of the lonely castle.

The spunky little princess hiked up her lace skirts with a defiant huff, pulled her cloak tightly around herself, and ventured on, curious blue eyes eagerly soaking in the intriguing sights of the bustling market before her. Some vaguely interested passerby spared Allura a curious glance before hurrying on their way, and others merely passed by ignorantly. Allura couldn't help but feel a thrum of fascination as she watched the wide variety of people hurrying along the market streets; many of them were not even pure Altean, much like her friend Lotor. They all towered over her, their gargantuan size and imposingly cult like cloaks making the princess feel daunted and insecure about her own slight size.

So the scrawny boy with the long black cloak certainly caught her eye.

Especially when she watched him subtly snatch an apple from a small cart when the owner was oblivious, polish it quickly, look around and then walk slyly in the opposite direction.

“Hey! Hey, boy!”

The boy turned on his heel, dark eyes under the cloak suspiciously sweeping the scene until they rested on her. He pointed at himself, regarding her curiously. ‘Me?’ Allura saw him mouth.

“Yes, _you_ boy.” Allura crossed her arms with a petulant huff. “I _saw_ you steal that apple.”

The boy waited for a tick, already pallid skin paling significantly underneath the cloak, before he took off in a sprint, his small stature working to his advantage as he smartly dodged the people in his way. Employing her more impulsive attributes, Allura took off after him in a sprint, ignoring the indignant cries coming from market people as she pushed them roughly aside in her pursuit.

“Hey! Wait!”

Allura kept her eyes trained firmly on the bobbing black head in the crowd, the small black cloak flapping with his swift movements. The tiny princess huffed in exhaustion; Man, this boy was _fast_. Just when she was about to give up, the boy disappeared into a small homey shack, the door slamming firmly shut behind him. Allura paused, and crept slowly up to the shack, reading the swinging sign above it.

“Shiro’s Weaponry.” She mused to herself before the door opened yet again, a very large man glaring down at her with deep obsidian eyes and lips pulled into a scowl. Behind him, the boy poked his head out warily, curiously large dark eyes expertly hidden under a mountain of black hair.

“Can I help you?” The man asked her suspiciously, folding his muscular arms across his chest.

Allura curtseyed instinctively, pushing her hood off her head, releasing her thick hair from its confines. “Hello,” she replied coyly, watching as recognition dawned on the older gentleman’s face, replacing the suspicion immediately. “I was looking for your son.” Allura pointed a finger to the boy behind the man, who shrunk back at the blatant attention.

“Princess Allura,” the man gasped in bewilderment, previous hostility towards her gone. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Like I said,” Allura replied shortly. “I was looking for your son.”

The man nodded, casting a subtle glare behind him. “Yes of course,” he said. “But Keith is not my son. He is my apprentice.” The large man pushed the scrawny boy–Keith–forwards, encompassing her vision in the large darkness of his eyes.

Allura hummed thoughtfully, curious gaze taking him in, from the spotted holes in his brown shoes, to the small tufts protruding from atop his thick head of hair. She held out an expectant hand, one that Keith looked at blankly. “Give it back, boy.” She told him sternly, reminded briefly of the times she had snuck into her mother’s prison trials, and watched them from her little nook in the corner. “I _saw_ you take it.”

Keith frowned, and looked at the large man again, whose thick brow furrowed in confusion. “Give what back, Keith?”

“It was just an apple, Shiro!” Keith whined. “Why should I give it back to the Queen of Sheba here anyways?” He asked with an irate gesture to the outraged Allura.

Shiro rolled his eyes, deftly snatching the apple from Keith’s pocket. “Because it's the right thing to do.” He replied, handing the apple back to the expectant Allura. Keith crossed his arms indignantly, casting Allura a sharp glare as she pocketed it, thanked the pair, and started on her merry way back to the castle.

“That was supposed to be my dinner,” She heard the low rumble that she most definitely wasn't supposed to hear.

Allura froze. She turned back around to face Keith. “What?”

He looked momentarily startled at her innocent query, but quickly recovered, dark eyes hardening like onyx. “I said, that was supposed to be my dinner.”

The image of her own dinner flickered into being, a luxurious meal of all her favorite things. A flash of guilt coursed through the tiny princess as her thumb stroked the shiny surface of the apple, a wide eyed mini Allura staring back at her from within.

With a small smile, she tossed the apple back to a startled Keith, who caught it swiftly in his two hands. “Here,” she told him. “I won't tell. I promise.”

His large eyes watched her in newfound reverence. “I–I–thanks! Thanks so much, Your Highness!”

Allura smirked. “No problem, boy.” She replied as she headed to the door, throwing her hood back over her head. “I will be back shortly with more food.”

The little princess could have laughed at Keith’s iconic reaction, for the boy’s mouth quite literally dropped agape, his face going slack. Behind him, Shiro eyed her with concern. “Princess, you don't have to do that.”

Keith tried to shush him promptly, but was quickly silenced when Shiro cuffed him in the back of the head eliciting a hissed ‘ow!’ from the latter. Keith frowned, tending to his injury with a gentle rub.

Allura shot them a smile, clasping her tiny hands together. “Perhaps not, but I _want_ to do it.” The smile grew when Keith grinned at her wholeheartedly. “I will be back in a few vargas,” the young princess told her companions. “Besides, I always _did_ want to make some friends!” She laughed. “You don't turn _friends_ in now, do you?”

Keith laughed in relief, Allura joining in subsequently.

Allura made good on her promise, and for the first time in her life, she had made some unlikely friends in the swordsman and the swordsman’s apprentice.

It was the start to a beautiful and unlikely companionship.

* * *

 

“Keeeeeeeiith! Hey, _Keith_!” Allura called up to the window. “Can you play today!?” She frowned when the window remained closed, tapping her foot anxiously on the cobbled stones. “Hey, Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeith! It's me! Allura! Come out and play!”

She didn't see him until feeling the cold hands squeeze her shoulders from behind, causing her to instinctively jump nearly two feet in the air with a surprised yelp. The hyena-like laughter behind her was a key indicator as to whom the perpetrator had been, and Allura made sure he was going to be punished for just what he had done.

She reciprocated the gesture with a swift punch in the shoulder, stopping Keith’s laughter in its tracks. “You are so _rude_ , Keith Kogane!” Allura said between punches. “Evil!” A punch. “Evil,” another punch. “ _Evil_ boy!” She finished with a swift kick to his leg. Keith laughed at her.

“You should have heard yourself, Allura!” He exclaimed in between giggles. “You sounded like a banshee!”

“So rude.” Allura huffed, crossing her arms with a playful glare in her best friend's direction. “So very rude.”

Upon getting into this friendship, Allura had no idea what she would have to do in order to maintain it.

One, she had to sneak out of the castle if she was to see him.

It was either that or sneaking him into the castle. This second task, Allura debated, would be significantly more difficult than the first. Especially if Keith carried his handy knife that he always seemed to have near. Allura belatedly wondered just why a six year old needed to carry around a weapon, but she never questioned it for fear of upsetting him.

Two, she had to keep it a secret.

There were already rumors circling around Altea that implied Allura being unable to act as a proper princess. That she was too undisciplined to possibly rule Altea some day. While these rumors were true to some degree, Allura didn't exactly want Keith to get in trouble, and Keith didn't want her already questionable reputation tarnished by a knife-wielding commoner that happened to be her very best friend.

Three, and perhaps most importantly: she had to be patient with Keith.

Keith was perhaps, one of the most introverted six year olds she had ever met. It had taken a few months for her to get him to stop calling her ‘Princess’, or ‘Your Highness’, and a few months more for him to display a few of his hidden admirable traits to her. She still occasionally prodded him to share a few facts about himself, so far prying some useful knowledge out of the reserved boy.

Right now, Allura knew…

1\. Keith's favorite color was blue

2\. He didn't have any siblings

3\. He didn't have any friends (other than Allura of course)

4\. He came from Earth (wherever that is)

5\. He didn't like pie

It may have been a scarce amount, but she took comfort in the fact that this was perhaps more than anyone knew about him. Meaning she knew him better than nearly anyone.

And that, in Allura’s opinion, was the best feeling ever.

“So what do you do for fun along these parts of Altea, Keith? You know, besides sulk around on your lonesome, stabbing innocuous objects with Shiro’s swords?”

He frowned, punching her playfully in the shoulder. Allura laughed. “You know, I don't really do anything.” He gives her a lopsided smirk. “Of course, besides stabbing things with swords.”

Allura laughed again before staring at him seriously, reevaluating his solemn words. “You don't do _anything_ for fun?” She asked incredulously.

Keith shook his head. “No, not really. I usually don't have time. The only reason Shiro’s giving me time off now is cause I actually have a friend.”

Allura sighed. “That's so sad.”

“I don't think so,” he replied. “It's just how I've grown up.”

Allura stood up, brushing imaginary dust off of her skirt before sticking a hand out to her companion on the ground. Keith eyed it dubiously before hastily taking it. “What...are you up to?” He asked her suspiciously.

Allura grinned innocently at him. “We're going to play a game. And you're going to enjoy it. Have you ever heard of tag?”

* * *

 

By the time Allura snuck back into the castle, courtesy of the kind cook, it was nearly bed time, her hair was painfully disheveled, and there was dirt marring the pretty silk of her dress.

She slunk back to her room carefully, heart pounding when she realized that today, she had been out a bit longer than usual. The door was in view. Just five more steps, four now, three.

“Allura.” Came an authoritative voice. “Isn't it past your curfew, young lady?”

_Dang it._

She froze in her tracks, placing a faux grin onto her lips as she turned to face her parents’ most trusted advisor.

Or as Allura liked to call him: her royal babysitter.

He sat in an extravagant couch, his legs crossed indolently across one another. Fingers tapped gently, impatiently on the wooden arm of the couch, and kind yet suspicious blue eyes regarded her with a slight amusement within the aged crinkles of skin. He patted the area next to him, suggesting–no _requesting_ for her to take a seat next to him.

Allura padded next to her oldest friend, and took a seat besides him. “Hello, Coran.” Allura greeted with a shaky smile.

Coran raised an eyebrow and brushed a finger along her cheek, showing her the dirt he had gathered as a result. “Been sneaking out, have we Princess?”

Allura blushed. “No.”

The second eyebrow threatened to join its brother on his forehead. “No?”

Allura shook her head profusely. “Nope. Night Coran!” She stood up abruptly, making her way quickly to the safe sanctum of her room.

“Wait, Allura.” His voice held an irritating amount of suspicion in it. So much, that it sounded like he _knew_.

She froze. “What?”

He beckoned her over with _the finger._ Allura had to obey _the finger._ She stood besides him again, and the kind man took her hands in between his, giving her a soft smile. “I won't tell, Allura.” He told her gently, stroking her hand with his thumb. “Just tell me who he is.”

“You swear?”

Coran nodded. “I do.”

“Pinky promise?”

Coran held out his pinky. “Pinky promise.”

Allura grinned and entwined their pinkies together, shaking their joined hands once. “There,” Allura frowned, regarding him with the most seriousness that a five year old possibly could. “Now you _cannot_ tell anyone, Coran. You promised.”

Coran nodded in mock solemness, raising his hand in pledge. “I did, Allura. And I intend on keeping my promise.” Unfortunately, severity was not Coran’s strong suit, and he burst into laughter as he held up his hand, destroying whatever pitiful poker face he had previously possessed.

“Coran!” Allura cried. “It's not _funny_! This is serious! He could get in trouble!”

Coran snorted before gaining composure. “I'm sorry, Princess,” he laughed. “I should respect the severity of the pinky promise.”

Allura crossed her arms indignantly. “Yeah. I don't want him getting in trouble, Coran."

“And who is he, exactly?”

Allura climbed upon his lap, leaning her head atop his chest. The man’s arms snaked around the little girl in return, holding her protectively. “His name is Keith,” Allura told him. “He's the swordsman’s apprentice and he's the very best friend I have ever had.”

Coran hummed thoughtfully. “A commoner, eh?”

Allura silently fumed. “He's not a commoner!” She retorted. “At least not to me.”

Coran pressed a familial kiss to her forehead. “Would you like this friend of yours to come to your birthday party? If he's so important to you?”

Allura lept up, eyes wide and pleading. “Oh, Coran! You could get him to come?”

He smiled at her, watching fondly as she bounced around like a deranged rabbit. “I would have to pull some strings but anything for you, dear.”

She threw her arms around her oldest friend in a gesture of gratefulness. “Oh, yes! Yes, yes, yes! Thank you, Coran! You truly are my favorite uncle!”

“I'm not your uncle, Allura.” He reminded her.

“You're right,” she grinned. “You're like my second father. Night, Coran!” Allura planted a kiss on his cheek before she sprinted into her room, ideas of what to write on Keith’s invitation card swirling in her head.

And when Keith saw the chaotic cacophony of girly colors and hastily drawn stick figures present in a single piece of paper resting on his desk, he merely shook his head in understanding, and put the card in a safe place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy!


	3. The Birthday Ball

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allura's fifth birthday goes horribly wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry! I can't get the title to fit whatever it is that I'm trying to convey! And I didn't feel like just naming it after Allura was enough. Seriously might change the name more if I see fit.

It wasn't perfect. Not at all.

Allura put the finishing touches on her drawing with a small, dissatisfied sigh and a slight frown. It was supposed to be of her and Coran, but it didn't exactly seem...right. Allura scribbled indignantly across the entire thing with her special blue crayon, new inspiration coming to her as she gazed upon the chaotic blue cloud covering the disfigured stick figures on her drawing.

Yes. That's much better.

A little purple, and then pink, and then green–

“Allura!” Alfor’s voice ricocheted off the walls, resonating in her room. A startled Allura dropped the yellow crayon with a small squeal, lifting her head to look at her father. He regarded her expectantly from the doorway. “Are you almost ready? Everyone's here except you!”

Allura pursed her lips, an observant frown making its way across her tiny face as she took in her masterpiece once more. With a small, satisfied nod, and a subsequent grin, Allura called out an affirmation to her father before escapading out of her room to take part in the ball.

Wait.

She swiveled on her heel, snatching the drawing from her desk before resuming her journey down the stairs, running past King Alfor on her way.

“I'm gonna beat you, Father! Just watch me!”

Allura looked behind her, laughing when she saw no sign of her father, surging ahead when she did not hear any sign of pursuit.

“I'm gonna win!” She cried out in a sing song voice. Allura snickered as she gathered the ends of her large pink gown, picking up the pace as the light of the ballroom came into view.

“Ha!” She cried triumphantly, jumping promptly onto the carpeted floor of the ballroom, watching as King Alfor stumbled into view right after her, crystal blue eyes the exact same shade as her own sparkling with mischief.

He sighed in mock disappointment, though Allura saw right through it when he gave her a playful grin. “Oh, man!” Alfor snapped his hand against his knee, feigning defeat. “Not again, Allura! How many times have you beaten me now, darling?”

Allura lifted her chin up and stood up a bit straighter. “Twenty-four.” She said proudly.

Alfor chuckled, brushing a harsh hand atop her head fondly. “Yeah, yeah alright, dear.”

Allura giggled. “Daddy!” She whined with a petulant pout. “You messed up my hair!”

“Oh, goodness me,” he said with a smirk, meeting Allura’s disapproving gaze. “I suppose I did. Mind if I repay the birthday girl with a dance?” Alfor bowed, the smirk still lingering on his face, silvery white hair flopping forwards with the movement. A mahogany hand extended outwards, towards Allura, and crystal blue eyes regarded her playfully. “Come on, ‘Llura,” Alfor snickered, watching her with residual amusement. “You know you can't resist these good looks.”

Allura scoffed mockingly, her own small hand fitting perfectly within his larger one. “Well I suppose if I must.” She giggled, lace and brocade adornments rustling with her movements. Allura dipped her body in a bow, copying her father’s motions, before he whisked her into the crowd of poofy dresses, smiling faces and perfectly executed dances, synchronized and poised. The tiny princess watched them all with wide eyes, for they were as sleek and sharp as the crowns atop their heads. The glances she received were cursory at worst and pitying at best. Suddenly the gown Allura demanded to wear seemed to be of low caliber, and the slight crown atop her head felt as if it were made of plastic. If Alfor noticed, he said nothing, diverting her attention away with an elaborate twirl to produce a chuckle from Allura.

Without thinking, her eyes swept the entrances of the ballroom, dulling when they did not spot a head full of raven hair, abnormally large dark eyes and a crooked smile. Allura pouted. Why wasn't he here yet? Was he coming? Did he want to come?

Did he even think of her as a friend?

Allura's frown deepened, and Alfor regarded her with concern. “You alright, sweetheart?” He asked.

Allura sighed, making a subsequent twirl. “I guess so, Father.”

“What do you mean, ‘I guess so’? It's your birthday!”

Allura glanced yet again to the door. No Keith. “Yes, but I was looking forward to...never mind.”

Alfor raised an eyebrow at his daughter’s dismissiveness and they descended into slightly uncomfortable silence soon thereafter. “Here,” Alfor said gently, crystal blue eyes suddenly serious and mutedly lamenting. A necklace pooled in her tiny hand, and Allura picked it up by the clasp, widened eyes taking in the intricately carved silver engravings and the shimmering colors of abundant jewels adorning the rim. “It's for your birthday.”

She looked at him in disbelief and awe, shifting glances from the necklace to him and back again. “Oh, Father! It's lovely! Thank you!” She threw her arms around his torso, squishing her face against his chest. “I love it so much! Put it on me?”

Alfor chuckled. “Of course.” Kind hands moved her hair from the base of her neck, leaving it to fall in delicate curls down her shoulder, and the necklace came about her head, resting subsequently on her chest. “There. You look beautiful, Daughter.”

Allura beamed radiantly, twiddling with the delicate thing around her neck.

“Hello princess!”

Allura grinned, turning on her heel to face her eldest friend. Alfor let her go, and the little princess sprinted towards Coran, leaping on him and throwing her arms around his neck. “Coran! You came!” She felt his resounding laugh as he held her up, and Allura pulled back to look at him. “I thought you were going to the Balmera to visit your cousin Shay!”

Coran chuckled, rubbing a hand against her intricately done hair, mussing up the tedious work. “Aww, Allura, you know I could never miss your birthday!”

“Thank you for coming, Coran!” She laughingly trilled. “It wouldn't be a party without you!”

He grinned, twirling his orange mustache between his fingers. “Well of course not,” he affirmed. “I'm the life of the party. Speaking of which,” blue eyes searched the crowd. “Where's your friend, Allura? I would have thought you'd be with him right now.”

Allura's sour mood returned with a vengeance. “He's not here,” she grumbled under her breath. “He's a no good, lying, son of an arse."

“Allura…” Coran reprimanded.

“Who’s a no good, lying, son of an arse?”

Allura grinned, squirming out of Coran’s grip. “Keith! You came! You really came!” She slung her arms around his neck, burying her face in her hair. “I knew you'd come!” Allura murmured.

“Really?” He rumbled in muted amusement. “Is that why you were calling me a no good, lying, son of an arse just a few ticks ago?”

Allura cuffed the back of his head. “No.” She denied.

“Uh huh.” Keith eyed her suspiciously. “Sure.” His eyes softened, lips upturning into a genuinely sweet smile. “I’d never forget to come, Allura. We’re basically best friends.”

Allura smiled at him, holding her pinky out. “Forever and always?”

He latched his onto hers, mahogany skin mingling with porcelain. “Forever and always.” Keith confirmed.

“Great! It’s a promise! Come on! Let's go introduce you to Coran!”

Keith blanched as the little princess grabbed his hand in a death grip, pulling him along to the chuckling advisor. “Uhhh...are you sure this is a good…?” His large eyes widened. Allura was nearly bouncing with excitement.

“Coran, this is Keith! He's my very best friend in the entire universe. Keith, this is Coran. He's my elderly friend.”

Keith snorted at her commentary, staring blatantly at the man’s large mustache. “You have a big mustache.” He said.

Coran raised an eyebrow, absentmindedly fiddling with it. “You have a large mouth,” he retorted smartly, laughing when Keith merely paled. “It's alright, son,” Coran said, patting Keith firmly on the back. “I was merely jesting.”

Keith laughed half-heartedly, shuffling closer to Allura in response to the social anxiety bubbling in his chest. “Yeah… okay. Right.”

“You're not causing trouble are you, Keith?” Shiro asked from behind Coran, obsidian eyes questioning.

Allura's eyes brightened, smile shining like a radiant star. “Shiro!” She ran to the man, enveloping his torso in a hug. “You came with Keith!”

Shiro placed a familial hand on the princess’s back. “Good to see you too, Princess." He hummed fondly. "Happy birthday, Lu.”

Coran eyed Shiro suspiciously as Allura trotted back to stand besides Keith. “You're Keith’s father?” He asked beneath furrowed eyebrows and hooded eyelids.

Shiro shrugged nonchalantly. “Well I wouldn't say that. I take care of him sure but I'm really his–”

“This is boring.” Allura interrupted suddenly, snagging Keith’s hand, much to the young boy’s surprise. “Coooooooraaaan, I made you a drawing.”

She poked him repeatedly in the arm, and Coran waved her off, taking the drawing absentmindedly. “Yeah, yeah that's wonderful, princess. So you're a _swordsman_? How the quiznak did you get that awesome robot arm?”

Shiro stared at the man in muted amusement. “Well it's kinda a long story–”

“Come on,” Allura told Keith, rolling her eyes at the two older gentlemen. _Ugh... men._ “Let's go do something _fun_.”

* * *

 

It went downhill quickly after that.

Allura first noticed it when she heard the startled intakes of breath and the subsequent screams.

Darkness had descended upon the castle of lions.

She watched helplessly from the balcony after hearing the startled cries, a frightened Keith residing faithfully by her side.

He stalked slowly towards her father, candles by him snuffing out as he walked past them, as if he had brought in darkness and shadows that permanently slunk behind him. Allura, too startled to do anything but blatantly stare, numbly allowed herself to be pulled down by none other than Keith, who had gripped her hand tightly in absentminded reassurance.

The man who had crashed her party held a vague resemblance to her father’s best friend, but Zarkon’s countenance was not so ghoulishly gray, nor did his eyes glow a vindictive purple, nor did his lips upturn in a vicious scowl as his gaze rested upon King Alfor. The gargantuan man gave a mock bow to Alfor, smirking lowly as the king simply glowered in return, folding his arms across his chest in mute anger.

“I told you before, Zarkon,” Keith stifled Allura’s strangled gasp with one hand across her mouth and a subtle ‘shh’. “You will never get your hands on Voltron. You'll have to kill me first.”

The man–Zarkon’s smirk grew unnaturally wider, his eyes glittering a malicious purple. “That can be arranged.” He replied in a voice reminiscent of nails on a chalkboard. “Not all things are immortal, old friend. Not even you.”

A jet of purple light emanated from Zarkon’s monstrous claw like hand, hitting Alfor straight in the chest. The subsequent reaction was startlingly sickening, catalyzing chaos amidst the terrified crowd. Where the purple light beam touched, the skin burned, blackening and shriveling like charcoal. Alfor’s poker face quickly contorted into that of utmost fear and vocal pain. The blackness surrounding the wound spread to the rest of his body, his arms, his legs, his hands, his _face_ , crumbling to charcoal in mere seconds. A blackened shriveled hand extended outwards in a belated plea for help before turning to dust,

Alfor's screams ricocheting off the walls of the ballroom in an an agonized howl. A howl that was soon joined by the terror filled screams of the previously frozen crowd, who had suddenly given Zarkon a wide berth, swarming the doors like ants on sugar as they attempted to exit the castle in one fell swoop.

The reign of King Alfor had grinded to a sudden halt.

Vaguely, in the back of her panic ridden mind, Allura registered screaming. Terrorized, horrifying screams that penetrated the soul and twisted the strands of her heart like a dagger, echoes surrounding her in agony.

“ _Allura! Allura!_ ”

The screaming continued.

“ _Allura_!”

The screaming raged on.

“ _Allura we have to move!_ ”

Were these her screams?

Only when she felt the gentle hand on her shoulder did she finally find the strength to move, heart pounding to the beat of the screams, feet drumming in chaotic rhythms. She made the mistake of turning her head back to look at the ballroom, tears welling in her eyes as she looked upon the pile of ash that used to be her father, and her breath quickening in fear as the mountainous shadow of Zarkon towered over the crowd, purple eyes flashing in morbid excitement as they rested on her.

“Allura.” He said in surprise, deep voice carrying louder than any scream. Then his eyes hardened, mouth twisting into a sadistically painted grin, and the surprised observation became a deliberate drawl. “Allura."

“Come on, Allura!” Keith grunted, snagging her hand and tugging the pallid, numb girl along with him down the winding staircases and through the vast hallways. “Oh god, oh god.” Keith muttered to himself as they ran, clutching Allura’s hand like a steel band. “Oh my god, he's dead.”

"Allura! Oh, thank the ancients you're alright!”

Allura stopped in her tracks, lurching Keith to a stop. Her lips curled into a relieved smile as her terrified gaze fell upon a bruised and battered Coran. “Coran,” she sobbed, running to the man and burying her face in his chest. “He's dead! He's dead, Coran! He's _dead_!”

Coran's arms came up to encircle the slight girl, holding her to him protectively. “I know, princess, I know. But right now,” He lifted her chin up to meet his solemn gaze. “Right now you have to be strong. We can escape this, Allura. You need to be strong. Can you do that for me, princess?”

Allura nodded shakily, tears welling in her eyes.

Coran smiled softly. “Okay. Come along then.” Allura hesitated and her sweeping gaze traveled coyly to the boy with the large dark eyes and silky black hair. “Allura?”

Allura walked to her friend, placing a comforting hand on his arm. Keith's glossy gaze was unreachable, troubled and millions of miles from the ballroom. Allura had always wondered where he went when he got like this, and whether or not she could follow him someday.

“Keith? Aren't you coming?”

He turned to her, large dark eyes achingly sad. “No, Allura.” He told her. “Shiro’s still down there.”

“What? But–”

He silenced her with a hand. “But nothing. Shiro’s the only family I have left. He may not be blood, but he's still family.”

“Keith…” Allura whispered brokenly. “Please…”

“Stay safe, Allura.” He rumbled lowly, pressing a soft kiss to her cheek. “I'll be alright. If all goes well, I’ll meet you by the spaceships.”

Allura squeezed his hand tightly in her own. “Be careful, Keith. If I don’t make it… remember that I’m sorry for dragging you into this, and that you were my very best friend.”

“Forever and always?” He asked innocently, dark gaze suddenly very frightened and very vulnerable under his charcoal lashes.

“Forever and always.” Allura whispered affirmably.

With that, Keith turned on his heel after giving her a small smile, his hand silently slipping from hers. Allura watched in mute worry as his figure became smaller and smaller before disappearing behind the corner.

“Come on, princess,” Coran said gently as not to upset her, pulling her hand in the opposite direction. “We cannot let Zarkon find you.”

Allura cast one fleeting glance to where her best friend had gone before squeezing Coran’s hand, toughening her tentative resolve, and running towards the alluring promise of escape.


	4. Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allura and Coran both escape Altea, but not in the way they expect to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the angst and the disturbing war things I incorporate into this chapter.

Coran tugged a numb Allura along various twists and turns of the castle, some that Allura had a vague idea, if at all, existed. They passed by corridor after corridor, through unfamiliar door after unfamiliar door. Gradually, Allura’s fragile resolve began to wane, whatever small aspect of herself that fought for self-preservation dimming to a candlelight flame. What was the point? She had no father. Zarkon was coming after her indefinitely. She had no Keith. She practically had no one…

“Are you alright back there, princess?” Coran asked over his shoulder. “You're awfully quiet.”

Silence enveloped the pair for a brief instant before, “What do you think happened to Mother?” Allura asked coyly as they darted through the hallways.

Coran was hesitant, but he had never before been sheltering, and so the answer came out unbidden and honest. “I don't think she survived, Allura.”

Allura felt her already fragile heart jerk at this small statement, so very simple, yet so very strong at the same time. Perhaps the most misleading of all expressions is that of when a loved one passes. Easy to say, yet so very hard to completely overcome. “Okay.” She replied softly, having expected some answer of the sort.

They ran the rest of the way in tentative silence, the residual sounds of echoing screams and pattering footsteps accompanying them to the hidden door.

Coran squeezed Allura’s hand, both keeping her from watching the chaotic destruction of Altea showcased in the glass windows, and bringing her to a sudden halt. They were stopped by a blank metal wall, unusually unadorned, Coran holding a finger to his lips in the universal gesture for silence.

“We cannot allow anyone to follow us, Allura."

“But what if–”

Coran shook his head to cut her off, eyes hardened in certainty. “No, Allura. We cannot even tell Keith of this door’s existence. Once we go through, no one else will. Understand?”

Allura’s eyes welled with unspilled tears but she lifted her chin in one tentative act of defiance. Coran’s uncharacteristic seriousness increased, should it have been a tangible being, it would have reached the size of his mustache. “Allura, this is serious. No one can know about this door. _No one_. Do you understand me?”

Allura nodded.

Coran's eyes softened. “Good girl. Now let’s go. We mustn't wait another tick.”

He placed a hand on the wall, Allura watching intrigued as the area beneath the hand glowed a bright blue, responding to Coran’s signature touch. He removed it a tick later, the blue handprint underneath fading soon thereafter.

For a second, Allura was underwhelmed. Nothing happened.

Then the entire portion of the wall was encompassed in that same blue light, releasing a hiss before it opened a chamber: a tunnel of blackness vast and intimidating. Allura shrunk back from the blackness, a small spark of fear surging through her at the thought that she would have to pass through that to get out of the castle.

“Lord Zarkon, this way!” Someone called, voice bouncing off the walls.

Coran cursed, eyes flashing in panic. “Come on, princess.” He whispered gently. “It's time to go.”

She took his hand without hesitation, and stepped besides him into the dark, the door shutting quietly behind them, encompassing their vision in blackness.

Allura could faintly hear pounding footsteps growing nearer and nearer to their position, but let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding when they faded once more, pattering towards the opposing direction.

Coran's hand squeezed her smaller one reassuringly, and together, princess and advisor sprinted towards the uncertain promise of light at the end of the tunnel.

* * *

 

“Keep up with me, Allura,” Coran huffed as he pulled her along behind him. Allura's legs burned, her original adrenaline having worn off a long time ago, leaving a tired and broken girl. One made an orphan in a single varga. “We cannot stop, child.”

Allura followed numbly behind him, the tears welling in her eyes blurring her vision like a watercolor painting. She would never see her father again, never again hear the lull of her mother’s voice as she hummed a lullaby to keep Allura’s dreaded night terrors away. She would never again feel the familial warmth that came with a parent’s touch or the soft caress against her hair. Never again.

Allura had never felt so alone.

“Okay, Uncle Coran.” She sniffled, wiping a tear from her face with the back of her hand.

Coran squeezed her other hand, eyes hardening in determination as he saw her tears. “It'll be alright, Allura,” he said softly, his voice laced in iron. “I promise.”

“Okay,” she replied. “Coran?"

“Yes, Princess?”

“I love you.”

A shadow of a smile lingered on his lips, affection in his eyes. “I love you too, Allura.”

He was suddenly interrupted when a hand snagged Allura’s other, ripping her out of Coran’s grip. Panic, bright and potent as a flame, shot through Allura as malicious snickering reached her ears, slender indigo hands encompassing Allura from behind with revoltingly deceptive affection.

“Let me go!” Allura cried fruitlessly, struggling in the unknown grip.

Coran's eyes widened in fear and disbelief as the glowing yellow eyes of her attacker met his. “Honerva?”

Honerva snarled in anger behind Allura. Allura kicked and screamed, her fight or flight reactions taking over any other reasoning she might've had at this very moment. She barely even recognized the name that Coran uttered. “Let me go!”

“Put her down!”

She fell to the floor, Honerva’s previously unyielding grip on Allura slacked enough for her to wiggle free. Allura scrambled back to Coran, who held onto her shoulders tightly, pulling her close with trembling fingers. It turned out her wish for rescue had been answered by a blur of black and gray, eyes flashing determinedly and sword swinging with deft agility. Honerva snarled animalistically at the new foe, crouching in a defensive position. Allura’s savior turned to face her, small smile curling on his lips and a glimmer of untapped resolve lingering in his obsidian eyes.

Allura struggled fruitlessly to reach him in Coran’s unbreakable hold. “ _Shiro!"_

“Allura, we have to go. _Now_!” Coran’s breath, hot and potent in her ear brought her back to her senses, and the fray commenced once more before her, the lithe figure that was her friend and the opponent, dark and menacing, each fighting mercilessly for their own desires.

“Go, Allura!” Shiro bellowed amidst punches. “ _Go_!”

“Shiro…” Allura whispered before blindly allowing Coran to whisk her away.

She didn't turn back, no matter how much she wanted to, the words forever and always ringing accusingly in her head over and over and over again.

“ _No Allura. Shiro’s still down there.”  
_

_“But–”  
_

_“But nothing. Shiro’s the only family I have left. He may not be blood, but he's still family.”_

Allura's vision blurred as the sudden image of Keith: broken, alone, without her, searching aimlessly for a man who Allura was certain had sentenced himself to death, came to the forefront of her exhausted mind. _All because of you_ , an accusing voice inside of her hissed. _You are the reason they ever got involved._

She let out a single sob, not bothering to stifle it anymore.

_I'm so sorry, Keith, Shiro._

* * *

 

Coran's gaze had hardened, as if the jovial man he had previously been died along with the rest of the royal family; he now was cautious, aware and prepared to face anything that could possibly cause Allura harm. She latched onto his hand absentmindedly, searching for the familiar face of her best friend among the crowd.

They walked briskly, Coran’s newfound vigilance creating a tension amongst the two that most definitely had not been there before.

“Do you think Shiro will be alright?”

“I don't know.”

“Really?”

Coran went silent, silencing Allura with a look filled with pain and empathy. She gasped, understanding perfectly what he was implying without directly saying aloud. And still, all she could respond with was a solemn, ‘ _oh_ ’ of sudden comprehension.

_Oh, Keith._

They spent the rest of the brisk walk in uncomfortable silence, Allura and Coran boarding the spaceship amongst the other panicked Alteans that had witnessed Zarkon’s destruction of the home planet. Allura watched helpless as Galran fighter jets zoomed across the blood-red horizon, creating chaos and fire wherever they saw fit. Screams had become commonplace, filling the void that had previously held merciful silence and comforting murmurs of low conversation.

Allura watched unable to turn away as an Altean woman was struck down brutally, her child ripped away screaming from her arms by a heartless Galra soldier. The only way the woman’s screams ended was when a bullet entered her skull, and her own child’s soon thereafter, leaving behind a silence that was somehow less preferable to the agonized cries of the Altean people as they watched their loved ones get brutally slaughtered before having to experience their own death not a tick later.

Allura grimaced, burying her face into Coran’s chest.

Altea was burning.

_Altea was **burning**.  
_

“Shhhhh,” Coran hummed. “It's alright, Allura. It's all going to be just fine.”

She sobbed mercilessly into his chest, wanting her father, her mother, her Keith, her Shiro, her life, her happiness. She wanted it all _back_. Why couldn't this all go away? Why couldn't she make it go away? Why was this happening?

The images of that woman replayed ceaselessly in Allura’s mind, the tears as she watched her child ripped away, the screams of agony, the abrupt end to the screams, a stark contrast to the painful noise.

_Make it go away. Make it go away. Make it go away._

The woman’s terrified scream reverberated loudly through Allura’s head, the sudden cut off leaving behind nothing but guilt and panic.

_Make it go away. Make it go away. **Make it go away!**_

“Make it go away, Coran,” Allura sobbed as he lifted her against his chest, the motions of his walking doing nothing to calm her. “Just make it all go away!”

She felt a soft hand gently run through strands of her hair, and warm lips kiss her forehead familially. “Shhhhh,” he comforted. “Shhhhhh, Allura. It's all going to be alright. We're getting out of here.” 

He set her down in the seat besides him, allowing wide, frightened crystal blue eyes to take in their new surroundings. There was a collective semblance of residual panic across the spaceship as Alteans milled about, pointing at the towering structures as they crumbled to the ground in a blaze of fire, and breaking down in a crying fit on the floor around Allura.

The ship lurched as it prepared to take off, Coran held Allura protectively against him, not speaking as if not to upset her. She watched numbly as a quiet descended upon the ship, one hand fiddling absentmindedly with the silver necklace around her neck: the only thing she had left from King Alfor.

The pain came again, this time stronger. Never in her short life had she felt so inherently lost and lonely.

“ _Uh huh.” Keith eyed her suspiciously. “Sure.” His eyes softened, lips upturning into a genuinely sweet smile. “I’d never forget to come, Allura. We’re basically best friends.”  
_

_Allura smiled at him, holding her pinky out. “Forever and always?”  
_

_He latched his onto hers, mahogany skin mingling with porcelain. “Forever and always.” Keith confirmed._

Allura gasped, suddenly paralyzed with a sudden thought, no a single word passing through her mind over and over and over again.

Keith.

“ _Stay safe, Allura.” He rumbled lowly, pressing a soft kiss to her cheek. “I'll be alright. If all goes well, I’ll meet you by the spaceships.”  
_

_“If all goes well, I'll meet you by the spaceships.”  
_

_“I'll meet you by the spaceships.”  
_

_“By the spaceships…”_

“No…” Allura breathed, heart pounding in newfound panic. He was waiting for her. And she had left him. He was probably panicking. He probably thought she had left already.

He probably thought she was dead.

_Forever and always._

“Oh no…”

“Allura?! What is it?”

“Keith…” she whispered, pressing a hand to her mouth to stifle her shock. “I promised him I would meet him, Coran!"

“Allura–”

She threw him off of her, sprinting to where she believed he had to be waiting. _I can still see if he's here. He has to be still here. I cannot lose him too. I cannot._

“Allura! Come back!”

She ignored Coran’s calls, nearly losing her precarious balance as the ship gave another lurch, signifying take off. _I have to make it. I have to stop the ship._

“Allura! You have to stop! Come back here this instant!”

In another tick, she had reached the airlock, her tiny hand pounding the red button besides it. She could have sworn the glass was taking its sweet time rising.

“Allura, no!”

Too late.

The ship lurched for the last time shooting upwards, and the little princess lost her balance, tiny feet slipping from their places on the metal floor. Her worried expression soon gave way to that of the utmost panic, and arms extended out instinctively as to grab onto Coran. “Coran! _Coran_!”

And then she fell, air skyrocketing her from the airlock and away from Coran.

“Allura! _Allura! Allura!_ ”

Her heart dropped into her stomach as she dropped into Altea once more, before everything went quiet and dull, duller, and then finally, to an unfeeling black.

* * *

 

She woke up on an unfamiliar ground, blackened charcoal covering everything. She woke up with an ear splitting headache. She woke up with a panicked feeling deep within her gut, coursing through her entire being.

She woke up not knowing where she was, _who_ she was.

And that made the panic only grow as she desperately searched the entirety of her blank mind, looking for anything as to who she was. She slammed a hand to the ground when nothing came, the blankness becoming increasingly overwhelming and frightening.

A mahogany hand curled up, taking in the dirt. She frowned, extending it to her face. Was this her own hand? She wiggled her hand. The hand before her wiggled also. The girl tilted her head, feeling rambunctious curls tilt with her. She stopped, touched the silvery blue strands in wonder. Was this her hair? She believed so. How interesting.

With difficulty, the girl stood up, her tired legs wobbling and head pounding to the quickened beat of her heart.

“Hello? Hello!”

The girl froze, feeling as though this were the first time someone had addressed her. Her tiny hands wound themselves in the material of her dress: a nervous habit? She didn't turn around, suddenly shy, afraid, lost. The girl shut her eyes tightly, as if employing the notion that if they could not see her, then she was not promptly there.

“Hey,” the voice was kinder, softer. The girl still didn't turn around. “Are you alright? You don't have to hide from me, you know.”

She stayed in her place.

A woman knelt before her, brown eyes gentle and comforting. The girl felt a wash of relief even if she didn't understand why. A hand came up to wipe tears the girl didn't even know she had released. “I know,” the strange woman said. “It's tough losing Altea, but I'm here now.”

 _Altea_? The word sounded unfamiliar yet achingly out of reach, as if separated from her by an unbreakable glass wall.

 _Altea_. For some reason, the word wrought a wave of sadness to course through her, and the tears came once more.

“Would you like to come with me?” The woman asked kindly. “I have room in my ship.”

“Where are we going?” The girl asked in a frightened whisper.

“I'm taking the survivors to a different planet,” the woman replied softly, finger flicking a stray tear from the girl's cheek. “One far away from here, where Zarkon cannot touch us.” 

There it was again. That feeling of unfamiliarity and aching familiarity. _Zarkon_. This time, the word brought fear, terror and perhaps, the tiniest bit of lingering anger.

“Where?” The girl asked again.

“We're going to a planet called Earth.” The woman responded with a small smile. “So, are you in or would you rather stay here?”

The girl looked around at the blackened planet, dead and broken. A skeletal husk of its former self. She turned her solemn gaze back to the expecting woman. And then she placed her hand in hers, following her to her ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also so sorry if the characters are a bit OOC. I'm trying to keep their overall personalities but just changing a few things to reflect what happens in this AU.


	5. Strange New World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girl adjusts to her life on Earth, and makes some new friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's chugging along. Sorry it's so boring, I'm trying to develop their relationships as well as I possibly can before we get into the good stuff.

The girl stepped carefully off the large metal transportation vehicle, and into the brand new world of colorfully flashing lights and hustling people who hardly gave her a cursory glance. She turned her gaze skyward, squinting up at the towering metallic buildings seeming to graze the sky like fingers of flame. A slender hand came up to idly clasp the silver pendant around her neck, and then, coaxed by a gentle smile from the woman who had saved her, she joined the line of dubious children before her, walking towards wherever the large metal beast had decided to take them.

The little girl’s gaze wandered absentmindedly, innocuously curious crystal blue eyes watching the people around them. Some yelled angrily into little box-like devices, others spared her an odd look when they noticed her staring, and the majority walked briskly past, perhaps caught up in something much more important than her, or anything happening now.

“New York.”

The girl jumped in surprise, her coy gaze shifting to the woman with the pretty brown hair and warm brown eyes like melted chocolate.

She smiled gently, eyeing the girl with mild intrigue and a soft amusement. “New York City,” she repeated for the confused child. “That's what this place is.”

“New York City.” The little girl parroted bleakly, looking shyly up at her older companion for confirmation after tearing her eyes away from the chaotic flashing lights, odd people with the rounded ears and the buildings that touched the sky. The syllables sounded odd on her tongue, much like the strange place itself. Foreign, intimidating and large. How unusual this world was.

The woman nodded affirmably, unfocused eyes idly sweeping the vast city around her. “Mh-hm. New York City. Not that nice here, but that's only on the surface, or if you get to Times Square,” she whispered to the little girl, waggling her eyebrows ridiculously as if telling her an important secret. “As for us, my dear, we’re going somewhere else. Somewhere a little more quiet.”

“Where?” The little girl asked innocently, attention now fully on her older companion.

“Somewhere you can start new.” Was all she answered.

The little girl pouted petulantly, unamused by the woman’s cryptic response. “New.” She scoffed, folding her arms across her chest.

The woman snorted, startling the girl into panicked silence. “You're alright, kid.” She told her, brown eyes sparkling with human warmth and mischievous light. “What's your name?”

The girl shrugged, taking a sudden interest in the passing lines on the concrete tiles. “I don't have one.” She replied coyly.

“Don't _have_ one?” The woman echoed in disbelief. “How?”

“I dunno.” She answered simply, still childishly refusing to meet the woman’s gaze.

“Okay,” her companion responded, a slender pale hand intercepting the girl’s vision of the concrete sidewalk. She looked up at the woman, a tentative question forming on her lips. The woman motioned for the girl to take her hand, ( _which she did_ ), and shook it once, twice, thrice. “Well we’ll make one up once we get to the orphanage. I'm Rae Ann.” The woman said. “Last name’s not important.” Rae Ann gave a lopsided smile filled with charismatic warmth. “My friends, though, call me Rae.”

“Rae.” The girl repeated intrigued, lips curling into a soft smile for the first time since she had woken up. For once in this strange new world, it had appeared that she had found a friend.

* * *

 

There was something overwhelming about the entire situation. She woke up frightened on a deserted, blackened planet, having only vague recollections of her past life and a silver necklace to her name, to have been whisked away from said planet by a stranger and brought here. Rae had told her that they were supposed to have picked up more survivors of whatever happened to that dead planet, but oddly, the little girl had been the only one. Everyone else at this facility was a stranger to her. She felt immediately out of place when the eyes of the other children went directly to her pointed ears, which turned a bright red at the unwanted attention. She was met with an uneasy cacophony of chuckles and odd stares from her audience, to which she responded to by hiding coyly behind Rae’s leg, a single crystal blue eye poking out warily at them.

This was not going to be good.

“I don't like it here,” The girl told Rae as the older girl turned down the soft sheets on her newly assigned bed. “They don't like me.”

“You have to give them time,” Rae told her, closely eyeing the uncertain girl by the corner as her hands fidgeted with the silver necklace around her neck. “You just have to be patient with them. They'll come around.”

“They say my ears look funny.”

“I think they're adorable.” Rae giggled with a heartfelt smile and a ruffle of the silvery-white locks on the little one’s head. “Different is not always a bad thing, you know.”

A shadow of a smile touched upon the girl’s lips. “Yeah, I guess. Hey Rae?”

“Yeah?”

A pause and then, “Why are you helping me?”

She smiled softly, that characteristic kindness shining through like a brilliant star. “Honestly? Cause you remind me of someone I knew once. Get some sleep now, yeah?” Rae prodded, gently nudging the girl to the new bed. “I'll see you in the morning.” The girl frowned at the turned down bed, that pit of emptiness that always lingered expanding upon Rae’s sudden departure.

“Rae?”

She turned around, poking her head about the bend. “Yeah?”

“I still don't know my name.”

Her head tilted inquisitively. “So?”

She rubbed her tiny fists against her eyes, that perpetual feeling of loneliness and confusion growing unbearable. Tears began to well in her eyes, and frustration bubbled to the surface. “I want one, Rae. Like you.”

Her eyes softened in understanding. “Just pick one that you like.” Rae said gently. “Tell me in the morning. That's a challenge.” The woman smirked lowly in an attempt to make the girl smile, even if only a little.

“Okay,” the girl said solemnly, silently fighting the oncoming tears of frustration as she climbed into the covers. “Night.”

“Good night.” The lights flicked off with a click, and the girl stared lifelessly up at the black ceiling, frustratingly looking for things that were just barely out of her reach.

* * *

 

The morning was hustling and bustling with activity. The children of the orphanage sat in round tables, eating, chatting and laughing, their eyes alight with childish energy. A few wary glances were cast to where the little girl sat alone, but she barely payed them any mind, too encompassed was she with the little necklace around her neck.

“Are you reeeeeally from space?”

The girl turned, eyes flicking warily to where a small boy stood, his expression innocently open and curious. She nodded slowly, uncertain and wary of what this boy was to do next.

To her surprise, he grinned a mouthful of white teeth that contrasted warmly with his olive skin, and plopped down in the seat besides her. “Woah,” he gasped, eyeing her pointed ears. “Cool.” He extended a dauntless hand out to touch them, to which the girl instinctively swatted away, glaring at him in reply. The boy’s cheeks reddened in embarrassment. “Sorry.” He muttered, taking a sudden interest in his clasped hands.

She eyed him suspiciously once more, and then went back to fiddling with her necklace, taking a special interest in the blood red stone.

The girl felt his newly curious eyes on the necklace as well, felt the semblance of uninhibited awe and fascination that he gave off like radiation. “Whoa,” he said again, extending a hand out. “Can I…”

The girl looked at him warily once more before nodding slowly. The boy’s hand came yet again into her space, touching the red stone adorning the edge of the necklace. To their surprise, the stone flashed once, enlightening like an eye awakening before dulling once the boy took his hand off.

This time, the girl looked at him in astonishment. “It's never done that before,” she breathed.

He went pale, his eyes gleaming blue gems in the middle of his face. “Cooool." He said again.

“Hey, guys!”

“Rae!”

The girl responded by taking off and hiding behind Rae’s leg to peer at the strange boy from a safer distance. Rae looked down at her, a strange concoction of amusement and disapproval on her face. “I see you've met Lance.”

The boy–Lance–grinned his trademark grin at her upon being recognized, snapping his fingers and wiggling his eyebrows ridiculously. The girl looked at him blankly. “Hello, Lance.” She finally replied.

“What's your name?”

She looked to Rae and then back to Lance. “I dunno,” she said. “I don't remember.”

He frowned, tilting his head inquisitively. “Huh. Okay. Well, I have to call you something, so… what about Lucy?”

“Lucy?” She parroted questioningly.

“Yeah! My… uhhhhh… my mom was named Lucy, aaaaand,” he looked at her carefully, placing her in a picture frame with his hands. “You kinda look like a Lucy.”

“What happened to her? To Lucy? What was she like?” She asked meekly, both poking her head out to get a better glance at the scrawny little boy with the openly kind blue eyes and averting Rae’s stern gaze at the personal question.

Lance nodded pensively. “Lucy McClain. She actually… kinda reminds me of you. She was really quiet, but also really nice. And it's okay, Rae,” he rubbed the back of his head nervously. “She was sick. Uh, some kind of brain cancer. I think.”

“I'm sorry.” The girl told him genuinely.

Lance shook his head dismissively, the grin bouncing immediately back to his thin features. Seemingly satisfied, Lance stuck out his hand to the girl, reminding her of something Rae had done when she had first been introduced to Earth. This time however, instead of cowering, she stepped out carefully from behind Rae’s leg and crossed over to him with only a small trace of uncertainty, clasping and shaking his hand once.

“Hello, Lance. It's nice to meet you.” She smiled at him shyly.

He grinned at her warmly in response, and for the second time, she felt as if she had found someone trustworthy. A friend in this strange new world. “Nice to meet you too, Lucy.”

* * *

 

Lucy had grown accustomed to life with the orphaned Earth children during the past year ( _Even though she and Lance were the most picked on, her because of her nationality and Lance because of his overall goofiness, they still managed to find familial comfort in each other: Lance in Lucy’s smarmy but reasonable remarks and Lucy in Lance's lighthearted but mischievous pranks_ ).

But, the day Katherine Holt arrived at their doorstep was something else entirely.

She was so tiny, Lucy and Lance had to look down to even graze the top of her little head, which was peppered with delicate tawny tufts that sprung in every sort of direction. She donned a little green nightgown, her large amber eyes bright and curious as they swept her new audience. Rae, of course, being one of the kindest employees, took to her immediately, scooping the tiny thing up in her loving arms and bringing her into another room, away from all the open stares and the uninhibited childish curiosity.

It was after all, rare when a new child came to the orphanage. Lance reminded Lucy that very fact perhaps thrice in the five minutes the toddler had even been there alone.

“Should we go see?” He asked her again, head poking comedically out like a pigeon’s as he tried once more to catch a glimpse into the room where the toddler was being held.

“Lance!” Lucy hissed, grabbing him by the cuff of his jacket and pulling him unceremoniously backwards. “We can't do that!”

He pouted. “Why not? We should get another ally in _this_ pit of vultures.” Lance gestured nonchalantly to the other kids milling about. “I mean, they're not exactly great people, Luce.”

Lucy crossed her arms, rolling her eyes in annoyance ( _a gesture she learned from Rae_ ). “It's not a _war_ , Lance.” She pointed out to her best friend. “It's an _orphanage_. And even so, how would a little human toddler help us if it _was_ a war?”

Lance’s pout deepened and he mimicked her irritated arm position. “Geez Lu, no need to get all techy on me, I just wanted another friend.”

Lucy glared at him. He quickly revised.

“Nooooot that you _aren't_ good enough, but it would have been nice to have some more, ya know?”

Lucy smirked lowly, and patted him on his soft downy head of hair. “Better.” She praised him with a lighthearted snicker and a playful sidelong glare. “You have been forgiven.”

Lance's warily frightened look immediately morphed into his trademark grin. Just one of the many things that mesmerized Lucy about Lance: the very fact that he could shift moods in a matter of mere seconds, and that he had a tendency to just as easily forgive as he did to shout out pitifully horrible punchlines to random girls on the streets from the bedroom window.

Upon seeing that he had been forgiven, Lance stuck his head eagerly around the corner, potentially in hopes to catch a glimpse of the new girl. Who, was in fact, four years old, thought Lucy with an internal groan.

“Please don't tell me you have a crush on the four year old, Lance.” She deadpanned to her childish best friend.

He caught onto the words like a shark to a drop of blood, turning around to face her with a mischievous smirk and sly glint in his eyes. Lucy grimaced, knowing immediately what was to come next. “Why, Luce? Jealous?” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, leaning in with puckered lips as to irritate her.

“Oh, don't flatter yourself.” She said half-jokingly, pressing his oncoming lips away with a stern hand and a dismissive roll of her eyes.

Lance frowned petulantly. “Ugh, fine, Lucy. You always play hard to get.”

“No. That's not–”

“Ah-hah!”

They froze, paralyzed under the playfully stern gaze from eyes reminiscent of melted brown chocolate. Lance shushed Lucy loudly ( _if unnecessarily_ ) perhaps ignorant and perhaps employing the childish fantasy that if they were very very still, then they were invisible. Rae put both hands on her hips.

“Alright you two spies. Jig’s up.”

“Shhhh,” Lance stage-whispered to Lucy, who cast him a concerned look.“If we stay still, she won't see us.”

“Lance, I can see you.” Rae deadpanned, voice no longer lilting and playful. “You know how this works, McClain. You need to give Katherine some time to adjust.”

“Her name’s _Katherine_.” Lance relayed to Lucy in a hissing whisper, promptly ignoring the growingly irritated Rae behind him.

“Lance.”

He smirked at Rae upon seeing that his prior plan had failed, sporting a deceptively innocent grin that could charm a siren. Lucy inwardly facepalmed. Of course it would be Lance who instinctively went to horrendous flirting in order to get himself out of an equally horrendous situation. “Rae, babe, come on.” He drawled in that tone that made Lucy want to punch him. “Can't we go see the new girl? For me?”

Rae folded her arms crossly, eyeing Lucy and Lance in slight amusement and more prominent exasperation. Her face fell, eyes softening once she understood that there was no way Lance was going to give up. “She's not taking it well,” Rae sighed as she took a seat, her body slumping in the chair. Lucy went over to her side in comfort, knowing from experience that the compassionate woman blamed only herself for Katherine's fear. “She keeps telling us that her brother and father are coming for her. That they aren't really…” She shook her head. “I shouldn't be telling you guys this.” Rae dismissed, rising from the chair and gently pushing Lucy off of her and heading back into Katherine's room with the other employees. “It's not my place to tell.”

The door opened for a brief moment as Rae moved to enter, exposing a multitude of workers around the bed, and a solemn little girl in the center, her large amber eyes hauntingly sad and lonely.

The door shut with a resounding click, and a second passed without Lance nor Lucy speaking a single word. Then Lance turned to Lucy, cerulean blue eyes set alight with their characteristic mischief and special affinity for doing things they were not allowed to do.

Lucy sighed bodily, knowing just where this was headed based on Lance’s current paramour.

“So wanna break into the new kid’s room later, Lu?” Lance asked her suggestively, the abnormal whiteness of his grin visible even in the relative darkness, and evident excitement collective in the air.

Lucy looked up at him nonplussed. “I suppose you will not let this go, Lance.”

“Nope. Prolly not.”

“Okay,” she sighed. “So what’s your plan?”

* * *

 

She was even tinier up close, Lucy couldn't help but notice as she and Lance opened the door a small crack to catch a glimpse at her. She had leaved the bed as precisely turned as Rae had left it for her, instead perching upon the bed frame to glance out of the window. Her figure seemed smaller in the light of the moon, shadows resting comfortably in the nooks and crannies left from the thin structure of her shoulder bone. Her large hair poked out in every which direction, tawny strands illuminated by the silvery light radiating from the window. And though Lucy could not see them, she knew Katherine's large honey colored eyes were locked upon the moon, perhaps signifying she was in deep thought.

Speaking of deep thought, her train was promptly interrupted when a familiar skinny shape slunk into view, creeping towards the little four year old.

Lucy sighed softly, inwardly wondering why she even attempted to coax Lance into working with her. Their way, not his way. Lucy was quite tempted to point out that his boisterous ideas never truly worked out in their favor.

That was, decisively true for this scenario as well, for Katherine turned, producing a startled shriek that soon turned to anxious heavy breaths and quick eyes that darted from the grinning Lance to Lucy and then back to Lance again. It was, of course, quite frightening to have two strangers enter your chambers in the middle of the night, Lucy reasoned. A detail that Lance clearly forgot to employ.

Lucy was there in a split second, covering Katherine's mouth with her hand in an attempt to stifle her scream. Fortunately for them, Katherine wasn't a screamer, and she merely stared at them, bug eyes panicked and inquisitive. Her eyes locked upon Lucy, and Lucy could practically see the flicker of surprise flash upon the child's face as her eyes passed over Lucy’s pointed ears. “Shhhhh,” Lucy cooed. “We're not going to hurt you. Understand?” A slow nod. Lucy sighed in relief. “Alright.” Once Katherine was reasonably under control, Lucy turned her pointed glare to her companion, who shrank instinctively. “Lance, what have I told you about sticking to the plan?”

“But, Lu,” he threw his hands up in exasperation. “You know I'm not that patient!”

Lucy rolled her eyes, taking her hand off of Katherine’s mouth. The little girl’s large brown eyes stared at the pair curiously, her lips slightly parted. “Uhhh, hi.”

“Hi.”

“Hello.”

Her eyebrows furrowed. “What're you guys doing?”

Lance grinned. “We wanted to throw you a welcome party!”

She looked nonplussed, a mature expression for one so small. “With only the two of you? That's not a very fun party."

Lucy shook her head, casting a playful glare to Lance, who stuck his tongue out at her in response. “No. We merely wanted to meet you. I'm Lucy and this,” she gestured to Lance, who shot Katherine his trademark grin/smirk. “Is...Lance. We just wanted to welcome you here, that's all. Because it is hard to find good friends in this place.”

Katherine shook her head and lept off the bed frame. “Oh no,” she dismissed. “That won't be necessary. My daddy and brother are coming for me.”

Lucy exchanged an uncertain glance with Lance. “Okay,” she decided, treading on careful ground. “Well while you're here, what should we call you? Katie?”

Katherine shrugged, her steady brown gaze unnervingly mature. “You can call me Katie if you want,” she replied evenly, lips twisting into a scowl. “But my brother always called me _Pidge_.”

Lance snorted. “Like… short for _Pigeon_?”

Lucy glared at him then turned to smile at Katie. “I'll call you whatever you'd like to be called,” she said sweetly. “Lance,” they both cast a glance to where the boy had his pointer finger lodged in his nostril. Lucy grimaced. “Well...he’ll probably call you something stupid, because he is rather stupid.”

He grinned upon hearing his name, pointing finger guns at Katie. “You got it, Pigeon!” He chirped. And then as the underworked gears began to turn in his head, Lance began to understand Lucy’s comment. “ _Hey_!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if Pidge is a little out of character. I always have a little trouble writing her, and yeah. As a four year old, I'm pretty sure she'd still be a genius. And my OC character is pretty much my friend. Right down to the name. Thanks for reading and tell me your thoughts! As always, I'm open to feedback!


	6. Rae's Tale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rae tells Lucy, Lance and Katie a story of old.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got the next couple chapters where I want them to go, so I'm pretty much set for a while. Thank you all for reading this story and giving such amazing feedback!

_Twelve Years Later_

_She wandered aimlessly through the blackness, deprived of all senses except sight. Even still, the visible oblivion surrounding her did little to soothe the fears of the unknown. Panicked, Lucy’s brisk pace quickened to a run, her mind searching for something tangible, an anchor to prevent her from forever falling in this infinite oblivion.  
_

_Snap!  
_

_She was in a large room, the people surrounding her twirling and laughing, their dresses and skirts billowing as they danced. Curiously, Lucy peered up at the dome-like ceiling, mesmerized by the sparkling crystal chandelier and sloped architecture befitted to those of royal caliber.  
_

_Silence ensued. The laughter stopped. The movements around her grinded to a sudden halt.  
_

_Lucy looked down, her gaze sweeping the large berth that the crowd had given her. She resisted the urge to scream and run away from this horrifying reality before her. But how could she? Her feet were frozen.  
_

_They didn't have any faces.  
_

_Blank features, divots where the eyes should have been, varying sized peaks where noses had perhaps once been. No lips to speak from, to laugh from or scream from. Just nothing.  
_

_And somehow, Lucy felt that they were all staring at her. Silently, solemnly, eerily, expectantly.  
_

_Movement caught her eye, and darkness descended once more upon the large room, the faceless ones melting into blackness. A solitary boy stepped out from the shadows, his dark hair long and bangs covering the majority of his face. Dark eyes partially concealed by hair peered out from behind the black strands, somehow lamenting in their unnatural largeness. A sense of familiarity washed over Lucy and she reached out for him, walking steadily towards him. “How do I know you?” She asked fleetingly. “How is it that I know you?”  
_

_He didn't respond, his dark dark eyes beginning to melt with the blackness surrounding him.  
_

_“No! Wait! Who are you to me?” Lucy cried, her pace quickening.  
_

_She reached out as to touch him, heart beating out of her chest as she came to the sudden realization that she could feel his warmth, could smell the soft scent of earthiness and sandalwood.  
_

_She knew, if she reached him, she would remember.  
_

_Just as her fingers brushed a strand of his raven hair, he began to fade, becoming one with the darkness around him. Even still, she saw a sad smile touch his lips as he melted away, as if apologizing for leaving so soon.  
_

_“Forever and always.” He breathed softly, lamentingly, before the darkness swallowed him whole, leaving her completely and utterly alone.  
_

_Forever and always.  
_

_Now she really was alone.  
_

_“I'll meet you by the spaceships–”_

Lucy awoke with a gasp, her heart pounding out of her chest, desperate sobs racking her body. Katie stood above her, her amber eyes startled and frightened, her forehead gleaming with sweat. Without a second thought, Lucy pulled the other girl into a hug, allowing thoughts of the dark eyed shadow boy to run rampant through her mind.

_Forever and always._

For some reason, the echoing words brought tears to her eyes.

* * *

 

“I had the dream again,” Lucy told Lance while they sat down to eat breakfast. “Same exact one.”

He frowned, blue gaze unusually troubled. “The one with the no-face-people and the random boy?”

Lucy nodded, placing her chin in her hands. “It's so frustrating,” she sighed. “I feel like I should know him, but I don't. Something's preventing me from knowing just who he is.”

Lance’s expression was oddly unreadable, eyes opaque, and jaw set. “Do you think he was important to you?” Lance asked shortly, in nothing more than an escaped breath.

Lucy looked at him strangely, her gaze sweeping his face for anything typical in his expression. He looked the same as always; same gentle sapphire eyes, same nose that sloped adorably and ended in an elfin point, same freckles that adorned his cheeks like stars in the sky. She had memorized his features long ago, partially out of fear that she would someday not remember him too. He was like her brother, she admired him and trusted him like no other. He was the only family that she had besides Katie and Rae.

She frowned at his tone.

“Lance–?”

“Hey guys!”

A familiar green laptop slammed in between the pair, easing the frivolous tension. Lance blinked once, then crossed his arms, his visage brewing like a violent tempest. Lucy frowned at him, concerned with this odd behavior of his. She promptly averted her gaze from Lance to fondly ruffle Katie Holt’s tawny head of hair, grinning as the slight girl merely groaned in reply, pushing Lucy’s hand away with an indignant swat.

Katie’s gaze shifted back to her computer. “Look, guys! Look at all this–” She frowned when she caught Lance’s sour paramour. “What's his deal?” She pointed to him with her thumb, addressing Lucy now.

Lucy shook her head. “He began acting oddly when I mentioned the dream…”

Katie’s eyes widened, her large eyes expanding to encompass half her face. “Seriously? It was the same one, wasn't it? The one with the boy?”

Lucy grimaced at the mention of the dark eyed shadow boy who was always just out of reach. “Yes.” She replied carefully. “He was there.”

Katie’s expression became inquisitive, her forehead lines deepening as she went into her common state of deep concentration. “He has to be important, Luce,” Katie pointed out matter-of-factly, promptly ignoring Lance’s subtle snort at the notion. “Why else would you be having these exact same dreams over and over again? And why now? Why are they just picking up? I mean, you've had possible memory flashes in the past, but wow! It's really gotten a lot worse!” The green laptop opened with a resounding click, revealing pages and pages of extensive research Katie had done over the past few years. Lucy smiled wholeheartedly at her other best friend; that girl never ceased to amaze her. “I mean, who is this boy? Why do you have that necklace? Why does the green stone flash every time I touch it–?”

“Pigeon,” Lance cut in with an uncharacteristic glower. “It's fine if we don't know things, okay?”

Katie stared at him in disbelief.

“Lucy doesn't need to worry about all this.” He clarified with a subtle glare in her direction, waves of oddly potent determination rushing off him. “She already has a family, remember? Us. She doesn't need to pursue this goddamn conspiracy theory of yours.”

Lucy glared at him. “And since when do _you_ have the right to tell me what I can and cannot do?”

Lance blushed and took a special interest in his cereal. “I was just–”

“Never mind,” Lucy dismissed with an eye roll and a wave of her hand, turning conveniently back to Katie. “What else did you find about my case of amnesia, Katie?”

Katie typed some keys on her laptop, her gaze straightforward and determined. “Not much, honestly.” She said. “Just basically more stuff we already know. Like that you probably hit your head and that triggered something in the hippocampus, and that something traumatic must've happened in your childhood that’s making your mind suppress the bad memories.” Katie turned sheepish, apologetically glancing to where her friend was regarding her curiously. “Honestly, I… uh… haven't really been focusing on your amnesia that much, Lu. I've been… uh… never mind.” She shut the laptop and rose from her seat. “I'm… uh… gonna get a bagel.”

Lucy and Lance exchanged glances.

“What's with her?” Lance asked.

* * *

 

“Lance this is spying.” Lucy reasoned fruitlessly as she stalked behind her best friend, who was currently slinking slyly up the stairs where Katie had disappeared.

Lance shushed her once they rounded the corner. “Lu, we need to know what's going on. It's not like Pidge to be so secretive. She's up to some shit, I know it. And being a future FBI agent, Detective Lance McClain is on the case.”

Lucy frowned. “I thought you wanted to be a pilot.”

Lance waved her off as they made it to the second floor. “Same thing.” He dismissed.

Lucy shook her head, chortling lightly, amused partially by her best friend’s antics and affinity to change his interest on a whim nearly every day. “Well, I'm going to find my family one day,” she told him with a soft smile. “That's my goal.”

Lance stopped mid crawl. He looked at her, face suddenly devoid of all boyish amusement and light. Like a mask. “We've been over this, Lu, finding your family is a suicide mission. It's not worth it. Stop looking to the past.”

“How can you possibly say that, Lance?!”

“I'm just thinking long term.”

“Since when do _you_ think long term?”

“I do when it comes to y–”

“Are you guys serious? Lance, I thought you wanted to be a detective. You honestly suck at it!”

Lance swore silently, cast one glance to Lucy, and then turned his attention to where the irate Katie stood, green headphones around her neck and slight figure oddly imposing as she glared up at the sneaking pair. “Sorry, Pidge. We were just having a discussion.”

Lucy shared a glance with Katie, who raised an eyebrow at Lance’s sudden shift in temperament. “Ooookay,” Katie said. “Sounded more like a fight to me but whatever.” She crossed her arms, obviously seeing through the pitiful excuses Lance and Lucy were giving her. “What's the real reason you're up here?”

Lance and Lucy exchanged a glance. Lance grimaced and released a sigh. Lucy felt her heart drop at the sudden change in her best friend. Did she do something wrong? Why was he suddenly acting so cold to her? She dismissed the fleeting thoughts running rampant in her mind and turned to face the expectant Katie.

“We were worried,” she replied, glancing at Lance, who cast a concerned look to Katie. “You've never been this secretive with us before.”

Katie flinched, suddenly uncomfortable, and turned to look at her feet. She was so rarely rendered this vulnerable, that Lucy felt her heart throb in empathy. She knelt down to Katie’s level, and looked up into her tear ridden eyes.

“Katie,” she prodded gently. “Could this be about the Kerberos mission? The one with your brother and dad?”

Katie nodded slowly, and flicked her honey eyes to meet warm crystal blue. “What is it?”

Katie glanced to Lance, who was leaning in practiced indolence against the wall, expression oddly solemn for him. “Katie, we care,” he told her in a gentler tone than he had used on Lucy. “You don't have to keep secrets from us. We're a family remember?”

“True,” Lucy smiled. “Forever and always, right?”

A hint of a smile crossed Katie’s lips, and a slight laugh escaped her. “Yeah,” she agreed, looking from Lance to Lucy and then back to Lance. “Forever and always.” She shook her head, as if clearing her doubts as to whatever she had been hiding from her best friends. “So… you guys wanna see what I've been working on for the past year, huh?”

“Yes.”

“Hell yeah!”

Katie smiled softly at their voiced enthusiasm. “Okay then,” she replied amusedly. “No more secrets. Follow me.”

Lance and Lucy met each other's gaze suspiciously and then went undaunted to follow Katie up the stairs to the roof of the orphanage.

* * *

 

The equipment was small but there was a multitude of it. Lucy caught sight of a small satellite, something resembling that of a computer, a television of sorts and a small notebook. Katie sat down in the middle of the turbulent chaos as though she belonged there, and adjusted the headphones to fit around her head.

Lance poked the small satellite, frown lines appearing on his forehead. He grinned at Katie. “What do you do all day, Pigeon? Come up here to rock out?” He chuckled at his own joke. The girls stared at him nonplussed as he kept on prodding the tiny satellite.

Katie swatted his hand away, casting him a glare as he tried to poke it again. “No, Lance.” She shook her head. “I don't come here to ‘rock out’.”

Lucy sat down besides Katie, taking place in the middle of her two friends. “So what _do_ you do up here, Katie?” She gestured to the elaborate equipment. “How did you get all of this?”

Katie smirked proudly, addressing Lucy now. “I built it,” she told Lucy proudly, the aforementioned’s eyebrows shooting to her forehead in response. “It's for scanning the solar systems.”

Lance looked intrigued, and he took a brand new interest in the little satellite besides him. “Whoa, _seriously_?! Pidge, what the hell? Why didn't you tell us this sooner? Why do you even have this stuff?”

Katie went quiet, and Lucy placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, glaring at the nonplussed Lance. “She wanted to track her family, Lance. I can understand that at least.”

A touch of a sad smile lingered on Katie’s face and she looked up to the vast sky as if trying to uncover its many secrets. “Yeah,” she affirmed. “I was hoping they would say something about Kerberos but they never do.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Lance’s eyes widened to encompass much of his forehead. He sliced his hands in the universal gesture for ‘wait’. “ _They_?! What exactly does this thing _do_?” He narrowed his eyes, regarding Katie with newfound wonder.

Lucy wasn't sure, but she thought she saw a slight blush dust Katie’s cheeks before a prideful smirk spread across her slight features. “It picks up alien radio chatter,” she said. “I've been listening for a while and have come up with this theory…”

She rummaged through her bag, coming out with a notebook ensconced in her tiny grip. Without a second’s hesitation, her deft fingers were flipping through the hastily written pages, landing on one in particular. Lucy looked over her shoulder.

“What… is that?”

Katie shook her head, as if she had never heard Lucy’s proposed question. Unyielding honey colored eyes flicked up to meet those of her best friends. Sometimes Lucy wondered just how someone so strong could exist in a body so small. “The world as we know it is about to change, guys. They're going to come for us. It's only a matter of time.”

Lance narrowed his eyes, pointing to a word repeated throughout Katie’s meaningless scribbles. “What's this mean?”

Katie looked at him. “I don't know,” she told him. “It's like the most repeated word in the chatter.”

Lance frowned inquisitively. “It seems like something straight out of a Transformers movie.” He said doubtfully.

“Voltron.” Lucy whispered aloud, allowing the familiar syllables to slide seamlessly off of her tongue. The blue stone on her necklace gleamed steadily, producing a comfortable but unusual warmth across her stomach.

Katie looked at the necklace in blatantly human curiosity before shifting her gaze back to Lucy, her expression becoming oddly unreadable. “They talk about something else a lot too,” she told her evenly. “A planet called Altea and the possibility of survivors.”

Lucy gasped. “ _Altea_ ,” she breathed. “That's where Rae found me.”

Katie’s mouth fell agape, eyes flashing with curiosity. “Wait, _Rae_ found _you_ there?” She asked incredulously. “ _Rae_?”

Lucy nodded affirmably. “Yes.”

Katie was nearly bouncing with excitement, her tiny body tremulous. “Do you know what this means? Do you, Luce? It means that after all this time, _Rae_ has had a connection to _your_ past. It means after all this time, we've had someone who possibly knows valuable things right under our noses! It means that somehow, _you_ are connected to all this. To the invading aliens, to Voltron, to _Altea_! We could find your family, Lucy!”

Lucy remained amazedly silent, for the first time, feeling as though all hope was tethered to a single word. _Voltron_. It held the key to her past, she knew in her gut. _Rae_. She held the key to unlocking the first door in the journey to the past. She knew that she had to find it. To find Voltron. She knew it inherently, as if it were embellished in her bone structure. Lucy looked up into the eyes of her very best friends. “Let's go find Rae,” she said in newfound determination, crystal blue eyes hardening with uncanny resolve. “And then we'll find Voltron.”

* * *

 

“Absolutely not,” Rae crossed her arms, crows feet adorning her eyes crinkling as her eyes narrowed. “You are not going to do this. Finding Lucy’s family is dangerous.”

Lucy sat down across from her eldest friend, placing a cup of coffee down on the table. Lance and Katie took their places besides her: Lance in the seat next to hers, and Katie perched atop the armrest like a little bird. “Why ever not, Rae? You do understand the severity of this, correct?”

Rae tossed her mahogany curls over her shoulder with a huff. “Of course I do. Which is why I won't let you go. You have no idea who's out there, Lucy. No idea what they could do to you.”

Katie crossed her arms, eyeing her suspiciously. “But _you_ do,” she accused evenly. “How do you know so much about this, Rae?”

Rae released a sigh, placing her head in her hands. “I used to be a part of the Galaxy Garrison,” came the muffled reply. “I had heard rumors of a rising power in the Galra empire.” She looked expectantly at Lucy, whose lips shaped the unfamiliar word, soaking it into her subconscious. _Galra_. Lucy gestured for Rae to continue. “The whispers began to take on a name of one particular Galra. His name was Zarkon, and he was the foulest creature out there besides his faithful witch, Haggar."

“Witch?” Lance echoed in disbelief. “I suppose this isn't one of the ones who melt when you pour water on her?” He chuckled. Rae, Katie and Lucy glared at him. He stopped.

“Go on, Rae. Tell me about Zarkon."

“I've told you all I know about him personally, Lucy, and believe me, you don't want to cross paths with him. He's relentless, cunning, and maniacal. He will shoot down a million humans if he could. And he'd laugh. God he–” Rae paused, growing pallid. “Never mind,” she breathed nervously, standing from her seat. “I've said too much.”

“Wait!” Lucy cried, fitting her hand neatly around the circumference of Rae’s wrist. Rae looked at Lucy expectantly, and if she were being truthful, just the faintest bit of fear. “Tell me. What else did he do?”

Her face hardened, becoming metaphorical stone as they spoke. “He destroyed Altea,” she replied evenly. “He was upset that the king wouldn't give him complete access to a weapon and so he sold his soul for the power to destroy him.”

Lucy’s voice was but the barest of whispers. “And did he?”

Rae nodded. “All known Alteans are dead.” Her gaze softened as she looked upon Lucy. “Well, as far as they know. They have no idea that a little amnesiac Altean child survived, coming to Earth to live in New York City in a human orphanage.”

“Me.”

“Yes, you. Do you see now, Lucy? Do you see why it's much too dangerous to go? Zarkon is ruthless. He will see you, perhaps somehow get an idea that you still exist, and he will hunt you down.” Rae glowered lowly, a scowl that twisted her features beyond recognition. “And trust me. Zarkon _never_ loses.”

* * *

 

“Think about what you're _doing_ guys!” Lance cried as he watched the girls flit about, packing all the belongings they possibly could. “Pidge! Lucy! This is insane! What's more insane is that I'm the only cautious one here! You can't sneak out!”

Lucy glared at him as she tossed a shirt into her pink bag. “You either come with us or you stay here, Lance,” she told him. “But you cannot stop us from taking this chance. I have the possibility to know where I came from! If possibly, there is someone there looking for me!”

“Lucy–”

“I _know_ it sounds crazy, but I can feel it. There is someone out there.”

Lance sneered. “Like who, your dream boy? Your evil uncle or some shit?! _God_ , Luc, haven't you even considered the possibility that you won't get out of this alive?”

Her gaze softened. “That is a risk I am willing to take, Lance. I have to know if there's someone there missing me. I have to know if I have a family.”

Lance peered up at her, blue eyes soft and very vulnerable. “But you do have a family,” he reasoned. “Pigeon and I are your family. You don't need to risk your life for this, Lucy. _Please_.”

She smiled at him. “Oh, Lance you mean so well. But I have to go. I have to try.”

“Yeah,” Katie jumped in, slamming a laptop into her suitcase. “And I'll be there with her the entire time. We can both find our families together. We can find answers."

His gaze hardened, switching in between Lucy and Katie and then back to Lucy again, who smiled at him in encouragement. Lance crossed his arms.

“Fine,” he said evenly. “I'll come. But only because we have the possibility to go against some evil space wizard dude and that, my friends is _awesome_ if not totally scary.”

Lucy smiled at him. "I knew you wouldn't pass up this opportunity, Agent McClain," she teased. "It's just too up your ally."

Lance pouted. "Dammit, why do you have to know me so well?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got a Tumblr for the first time ever too.
> 
> It's basically the same username as my AO3 account. @narnieee. I basically just do random stuff on it now cause random stuff is just so damn fun.


	7. Shadow Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucy, Lance and Katie find a fourth person, and the possible location of Voltron.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is the last chapter with no Keith in it. I promise he'll be in the next chapter and then the next chapter after that will be a little back-story. Enjoy!

_The first thing she saw was a blackened silhouette, the shadow of a man a vivid image against the tiled floor. The next thing she saw was the ashes, scattered across everything. Black on the walls, black on the steps, black on the floor. It turned to dust in the wind, floating gently as if it were a sickening type of blackened snow.  
_

_The very next thing she saw was the silhouette beginning to move in slight, deliberately slow, barely perceptible movements until it appeared to be facing **her**._

_Lucy held her breath, her heart pounding out of her chest, feet planted firmly on the floor, inhibiting her from running._

“ _Do you see, dear daughter?” A voice like the delicate scratching nails on a chalkboard echoed, bouncing accusingly off the walls. “The necklace I gave you wasn't purely a gift.”_

_The blue stone gleamed brighter than anything Lucy had ever seen, radiating light as if a tiny star resided inside. Lucy instinctively held the pendant in her palms, only to drop it immediately after feeling the heat exuding from the delicate blue stone.  
_

_“It is searching for you just as you are searching for it,” the shadow man told her in that bone-chilling yet achingly sad voice. “Just look for the large canyon, my dear. The necklace will know what to do.”  
_

_The image shifted, turning the blue sky blood red. Lucy gaped in frightened horror as spaceships zoomed freely into the sky, soldiers of some sort wrenching human children from their mothers, killing as they pleased. Lucy shook her head. “No.”  
_

_“This is what they do, daughter,” the voice of the shadow man echoed from all around her, infiltrating the horrifying reality around them. “The Galra will destroy your home, and those you love as well.”  
_

_That was when she saw it._

_A slight figure, face down in the concrete. She was a girl, with tawny hair that stuck up in all directions. Her leg was twisted in an unnatural position, and smoke from the fire tainted her green shirt an unfeeling black. She was limp, Lucy realized with a painful jolt of her heart._

_She was not moving.  
_

_**Katie**.  
_

_The next was dangling from atop the orphanage building like the flag of a defeated country, his mouth agape in a silent scream, blue eyes devoid of boyish energy; instead reflecting the last emotion he had ever experienced: pure terror. Lucy let out a strangled sob, her body curling in on itself when she realized that he too was dead.  
_

_**Lance**._

“ _You should have listened to me.”  
_

_Lucy whirled on her heel, her gaze dropping to where a solitary child stood, his hair dark and eyes solemn. They peered openly at her, condescending and partially sad. If Lucy were observant enough, she would have perhaps detected a small portion of disappointment in there too.  
_

_The shadow boy.  
_

_“Why?” She asked in a choked whisper, unsure if the flippant query had been responding to his proposed statement or to the current state of her adopted home.  
_

_“Because I told you to meet me by the spaceships,” he said as his head tilted innocuously, the fire behind him creating a halo of orange light around his silhouette. Like a demon. “If you had only listened to me, then they wouldn't be in danger. But you brought them into this, and if you do not find Voltron before Zarkon, then this is your future.”_

“ _No.” Lucy gasped.  
_

_“Yes,” The boy said softly, his empathetic tone laced with steely fervor. “You must.”  
_

_“Lucy!”  
_

_The boy adopted a dreamy visage, his gaze unfocusing, his lips curled into something resembling an apologetic smile before he turned to the same dust as the shadow man. Lucy ran after him, attempting fruitlessly to grasp the air where he had once stood. “Wait!” She cried desperately. “Who are you!? **Who are you?!** What do you mean, by that?! Please! You have to tell me what's going on!”  
_

_“Lucy! Lucy! **Lucy!** ”_

Her eyes snapped open.

“Lucy!”

Oh, right. She was still on the bus. With an embarrassed thought, she realized that she must've fallen asleep. And that she most probably had been speaking in her sleep, potentially squirming and crying out from her untimely nightmare.

Lucy blinked the sleepiness away, eyes raking in her surroundings. Directly in front of her, exceptionally close, was a familiar face dotted with brown freckles, an innocuously concerned look in his blue, blue eyes and a fluff of downy mahogany hair atop his head.

His eyes held virtually no sign of life-threatening fear.

His face was lively with expression, not slack with the touch of death.

He was alive.

“Lu?” He asked tentatively.

She responded by throwing her arms around him in the next second, burying her face in the crook of his neck.

Over his shoulder, Katie, _beautifully alive Katie_ , regarded her worriedly, her headphones perched dutifully around her neck, laptop light casting shadows upon her face, her hair disheveled with sleep. She raised a curious eyebrow, her large amber eyes innocent and inquisitive.

Lance wrapped his arms around her in response, holding her gently to him. “Lu? You good? Did you have a nightmare or something?”

With a soft moan she pulled away from her best friend, her back landing against the bus seat with a resounding plop. Lucy shut her eyes and gripped her head, which felt like it had had an anvil dropped on top of it followed by a full sized piano followed by a truck. Not to mention it was now throbbing uncontrollably. “Yes,” she said, voice muffled by a hand. “But I do not wish to talk about it now. It's too…” her voice trailed off, ending in a small sigh of resignation.

She snuck a peak at Lance behind her hands, who regarded her worriedly, openly human concern in his eyes and lingering in his tense posture. “Ok,” he said gently. “But Lu, it always made me feel better to talk to you about my nightmares, remember?”

Despite herself, Lucy released a chuckle. “Yes I do, Lance,” she told him. “Do you remember the time you watched that show… what was it called again?”

“I dunno,” he said. “You're gonna have to give me more context than that, Lu.”

“The one about the three kids and that ridiculous web show they had? The one with the nerdy guy who always crushed blatantly on the brunette?”

“...ICarly?"

“Yes!” She exclaimed. “You watched ICarly and then you'd always have that same nightmare about the children who would come into your room at night and eat all your soup! You _hated_ that dream.”

Lance laughed and then pouted when the image came to mind, and he understood what Lucy was referencing. “Hey! It happened all the time, Lucy. They would eat my soup!”

Lucy laughed. “Yes and then I would come into your room behind Rae’s back and you'd be sobbing!”

“Yeah, cause it was a terrifying dream!”

“A-and then…” Lucy giggled. “You'd tell me the dream and… I would tell you that was ridiculous! You'd start crying again when I reminded you that there was no soup here anyways! It was always around midnight!”

“Lu, what the hell? Why were you always so mean to me?!” He whined playfully, nudging her in her side. “It's bad enough that the weird freaking kids ate all my soup, but then to wake up to having _no_ soup at all?! Worst dream ever!”

Lucy hummed fondly, placing her head on his warm shoulder. “Yes,” she breathed softly. “But then I would always take you downstairs and make you soup. Chef Boyardee chicken noodle.”

He rested his head upon hers, so that she could feel the rumbles when he laughed. “And then Rae would come downstairs and yell at us.”

“What did you say to her that one time, again?”

Lance barked a laugh. “You _know_ , Luce. Don't even try to pretend you don't.”

“Indulge me? Just say it, Lance.”

He sighed fondly, deep in loving memories. “I freaked out and told her not to steal my soup or I'd fling it in her face.”

Lucy chuckled. “She got so mad. I don't think I've ever seen her that irritated.”

“That's the one thing I pride myself on,” Lance quipped. “I am the _best_ at annoying people.”

Lucy hummed affirmably in reply, and the pair lapsed into comfortable silence, the only audible sound being the occasional click of Katie’s laptop keyboard as she worked away on something completely out of Lucy and Lance’s level of comprehension.

“Do you think Rae knows we're gone yet?” Lucy asked softly as she took in the beauty of the rising sun over the vast horizon.

“Probably.” Lance replied.

“Do you think she's worried about us?”

“Definitely.”

“I miss her. Rae, I mean,” Lucy said wistfully. “She was basically the only mother that I remember.”

“You don't have to keep going with this plan, you know,” Lance told her gently. “We can go back whenever you want. See Rae, have a normal life…”

“I know, Lance. But we’re so close, I can feel it. Something wants me to keep going. I have a destiny, and it doesn't involve raising two children and working in a cubicle.”

“Lucy… is it worth it though? Risking your life for someone you're not even sure is still there?”

Lucy looked at him. “Yes. I would do anything to figure out who I am, Lance. I cannot give up, no matter how much I miss New York right now.”

“I just…” Lance averted his gaze from her, looking to the floor as if it had all the answers in the known universe. “I worry about you, Lucy. You're always in your own little world with your shadow people and your fantasies. You never really seemed to need anything else.”

The words came tumbling out without a second thought. “I do need you though. No matter who I find, you and Katie will always be my family. I will always be a part of you just as you will always be a part of me.”

He went silent then, and they became just two friends enjoying the company of one another and watching as the rising sun bathed the Earth in a soft pink glow.

* * *

 

They met Hunk Garrett when they got off the bus in the middle of nowhere, courtesy of a small mishap in the engine.

Lance thought it was unfortunate. Katie, a firm believer in science, believed it was pure coincidence. Lucy however, insisted that it was nothing less than fate itself.

They wandered aimlessly for what seemed to be forever, with Katie finally pointing out the relevant fact that they had relatively no plan in terms of where they were headed. Lucy then remembered her dream, the shadowy man telling her to follow where the necklace told her to go, and something of a large canyon. She told her friends about it, who cast her pitiful glances interspersed within determined looks of steely intent.

Katie then decided to first try to go to the Grand Canyon, having been the largest and most famous canyon in the United States. Lucy and her friends were even more convinced of its significance when the blue stone on Lucy’s pendant began to steadily pulse with electrical blue light, as if it were affirming Katie’s suggestion.

And so it was. They were off to the Grand Canyon.

Now all they needed was a ride.

It was rather unfortunate that none of them had a permit or a license for that matter, as none of them had even considered applying for one in the midst of a crowded New York City where drivers were impatient pricks, pedestrians were oblivious to traffic and traffic… well.

Traffic was just plain horrible.

So the trio found themselves sitting placidly in a small diner, Lance scarfing his bacon and eggs like he hadn't eaten in weeks, Katie sipping her black coffee in between spurts of vigorous typing on the green laptop, and Lucy fiddling with the glowing pendant around her neck, the pancakes in front of her untouched and cold.

“You're not eating your pancakes,” a deep voice laced with concern observed from above her. “You okay?”

Lucy, Lance and Katie’s heads swiveled to where the voice came from. In this case, it belonged to a rather large man with mahogany colored skin, kind dark eyes and a soft smile filled with more compassion and concern that Lucy had ever seen from a stranger. “Oh, I'm alright,” she told him with a cordial smile. “I'm just not very hungry.”

Katie smiled at the stranger, who was frowning at Lucy’s untouched pancakes. Lance’s gaze was also on the pancakes, but he looked as if he wanted to devour them rather than have Lucy eat them herself. Lucy, having cast a cursory glance to Lance, slid the plate across the table to his awaiting arms.

She shot the strange man a sweet smile. “It's really alright,” she told him when he looked dubious. “I just don't have much of an appetite.”

“Want me to get you some soup?” He asked worriedly. “I’m kinda sorta the chef so it wouldn't be a problem.”

“You're the chef?” Lance warbled in between bites, pancake bits practically dribbling from his mouth. “Dude, really good. Really, really good.” He offered the chef a thumbs up before he got into scarfing Lucy’s pancakes again.

Lucy grimaced at his audacity and then sent the chef an apologetic smile. “I apologize for him,” she told him hastily before glaring at Lance pointedly. “He can eat an entire cow before he passes out.”

“True.” Katie affirmed without looking up from her computer.

Lucy blatantly stared at her before addressing her new acquaintance again. “And Katie rarely looks up from her computer,” she said with a pointed nudge to Katie’s arm. Katie shot Lucy a glare, rubbing her wounded arm with a grumble. Lucy smiled dazzlingly in response, using her characteristic charisma to her advantage. “We’ll have a soup to go, thank you…?” She ended politely, posing a deliberate question.

The man’s eyes softened before her. “Hunk,” he said cheerfully. “Hunk Garrett.”

Lucy stuck out her hand, reminded briefly of Rae as she did so. She ignored the sharp stab of pain at the thought of her eldest friend, instead masking it nearly effortlessly. He gripped her hand in response, the largeness of it almost humorously contrasting with her slender fingers. “I'm Lucy. It's very nice to meet you, Hunk Garrett.”

Lance grunted in reply, shoving his mouth unashamedly with pancakes. Katie gave him a half-hearted thumbs up before taking another small sip of her coffee. Lucy frowned in annoyance, feeling as if she had just become a mother in a couple seconds.

“Okayyyyy,” Hunk said uncertainly, casting a glance to the pair of teenagers before he smiled again at Lucy. He shot her with two finger guns, smirking quirkily. “I'll uh… be back with your soup in a jiffy, Lucy.”

“Thank you, Hunk.” She said softly, absentmindedly rearranging the silverware on the table before the chef left to grab the soup that Lucy ordered out of mere cordiality. She contorted her dazzling smile to a death glare in a matter of a second, setting it loose upon Lance and Katie. “You two are some of the most infuriating people I have ever met. Did you never learn how to speak to strangers?”

Lance shrugged, scooping another mouthful. “I know how but I'm kinda busy right now.”

“Katie?” Lucy frowned, crossing her arms in irritation.

Katie looked annoyed. “Well sorry but I'm trying to figure something out. I don't have time to be nice. Now, Luce can I see your necklace?”

Lucy handed it over willingly, knowing from experience that Katie needed it for something of utmost importance. The green stone flashed once when Katie’s slim fingers grazed the surface, familiarly responding to its touch as if it were a friend saying hello. The blue stone, oddly enough, continued to pulse rhythmically, even without Lucy’s constant touch.

“Strange,” Lucy hummed thoughtfully. “It's still...glowing.”

Katie brushed her pointer finger idly over the blue stone, tilting her head curiously. “It's warm too,” she observed. “Almost as if it's… warning us of something.”

“It could also be telling you something. Ya know, leading you somewhere.”

A mute confusion encompassed the small section of the diner, Lucy and Katie instinctively freezing in surprise. A large head had infiltrated Katie's personal space, chocolate brown eyes openly investigating the pendant currently resting on her open palm.

Upon seeing that he had been discovered, Hunk’s visage became sheepish, his lips upturning in a shaky, embarrassed grin. “Y-you know,” he tried again. “It could have been glowing cause you could be getting closer to whatever it's leading you to.” He held up a plastic bag, smiling at Lucy. “I got your soup.”

“Did you say soup?!” Lance exclaimed rather randomly from the opposite end of the table, making eye contact with Lucy, who rolled her eyes. Perhaps his dream would never allow him to eat soup normally again, Lucy thought fleetingly.

“Yes, Lance. Where have you been these past ten minutes?”

He responded by sticking his tongue out petulantly at her.

Hunk watched their dynamic as if it were a particularly interesting soap opera. Lucy took the soup from him unabashedly, tucking it under her coat.

“So where did you get this thing anyways? It's yours right?” He held his hands out for the necklace. Katie looked uneasily at him, before shifting that gaze to Lucy in unspoken approval to hand it over.

Lucy waved her hand in dismissal. "It's alright, Katie.” She told the girl. “He can see it.”

She wasn't sure why, but something about him was interesting. As if like magnets, she, Lance and Katie had all been drawn to this diner. To this man. She inherently knew it as well as she knew the necklace meant something important. Her heart pounded in her chest as his fingers touched the yellow stone, subsequently awakening it’s eerily lifelike wink.

She let out a breath she hadn't been holding, and when Lance, Katie and Hunk all stared at her for some type of guidance, she could only manage a startled gasp and a quiet, “It’s never done that before.”

“Whoa, _what_?!” He stared at the yellow stone. “Didn't the green one react for you?” He pointed to Katie who nodded. “And the blue one for you?” Lucy smiled and dipped her head in a nod as he finally came to the same conclusion as she. “And you? Lance? Do you have a weird glowy rock thingy too?”

He picked his teeth with a toothpick, slyly glancing Hunk’s way. “Yep. Red.”

“What does it mean? Lucy? It's your necklace.”

She went silent, wracking her dimly lit memories for something useful. Something regarding the necklace and it's strange properties. It obviously brought them all together. All four of them. But the black stone remained untouched. Why? Did they need to find another? What did the stones represent? Where was the blue stone leading them? _Who did the black stone belong to?_ This answer, Lucy was almost positive, resided in her vague dreams. Something to do with an elusive boy, large dark eyes, a sad smile and black hair that concealed half his face from her.

Lance looked to her worriedly, traces of humor gone from his visage, leaving behind concern for her. Katie’s expression was similar, but hers held an air of expectancy to it. Hunk just looked confused, but he looked to her all the same.

Lucy internally groaned. When had _she_ become the pseudo leader?

“I don't know,” she said shakily, taking the necklace hastily back from Hunk. “But I think we should follow where the blue stone tells us to go. Hunk is right; it's leading us to something. And we are all a part of this now.”

_If you had only listened to me, then they wouldn't be in danger. But you brought them into this, and if you do not find Voltron before Zarkon, then this is your future._

Lucy shuddered, pushing the condescending voice of the shadow boy away, instead focusing on one simple word.

 _Voltron_.

“It's leading us to Voltron.”

Lance nodded. “Yeah, you're probably right, Lu. That necklace has a connection to whatever this Voltron is, and to your past too. If you really want to find out who you are, we should follow it. And me… like hell am I gonna let you do this alone. I'm with you, always.”

She smiled back at him, enjoying the rejuvenated sparkle in his eyes and the rekindled grin of her true best friend. “Thank you Lance.”

“I'm with you too, Lu,” Katie placed a hand on her shoulder. “We're family. I know I spent a lot of time looking for Matt and my dad but you are as much of a family to me as they are. I'm not gonna leave you either.”

This left one.

They looked expectantly at Hunk, who paled considerably, looking as if he were about to projectile vomit all over Katie.

“Well?” Lucy prodded. “You are a part of this now, Hunk. You are the fourth. Will you accompany us to the Grand Canyon in search of this Voltron?”

He dismissed her with a wave of his hand and a soft chuckle. Hunk raised his hands in surrender. “I'll have to tell Grandmama that I'm not coming home for dinner then,” he chortled. “What the hell? It's not gonna be dangerous right? Right?!”

* * *

“What?! You said it _wouldn't_ be dangerous! Lance! Katie! No… no, no, no, no, no. No way man–”

Lucy drowned the rest of the conversation out, having gone to the restroom for some much needed time to herself. No matter how little that time was. She placed her hands in the sink, feeling the warm water wash over them. Lucy shut her eyes, taking in the new information she had gathered from the diner.

One: The necklace led her to Voltron, whatever that was.

Two: It had once belonged to her family. The shadow man from her dream had called her his daughter.

Three: Hunk was the reactor of the yellow stone.

Four: They all were a part of this now. All four of them were connected to Voltron and to each other.

Five: There was a fifth.

Six: They needed to find whoever the fifth was.

Lucy ran an idle hand through her silvery-white hair, partly exposing the points of her anomalous ears. With a blush and a quick look around, she placed the hair strategically over them, concealing the elfin points from human view. Her eyes went to her cheekbones, the odd pink birthmarks adorning them covered by foundation that matched her skin tone.

If Lucy wanted to, she could very well persuade her reflection that she was human. Like Lance, like Katie, like Hunk, like Rae. But she knew, as she looked at her silvery-white tumbling curls, her crystal blue eyes and her pink pupils, that she could not fool herself. Not even her reflection.

She knew she didn't belong here. She wasn't human.

But if she found her family, she could finally find somewhere where she _did_ belong.

And this only strengthened her resolve to find Voltron.

With one final peek at herself in the mirror, Lucy walked out of the dimly lit bathroom, plastered a smile upon her alien features, and went out to retrieve her friends.


	8. Finding Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucy and the gang find something blue. Something else finds Lucy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ughhhhhh why is this chapter so looooooong?

"Okay. So we're going to the Grand Canyon,” Hunk prompted, his hands on the wheel of his rusty old pickup truck, eyes carefully regarding Lucy in the back seat. “What...uh are we looking for exactly?”

She kept her gaze determined and forwards, looking at nothing but the passing tumbleweeds, cacti and occasional homes that would soon disappear into the horizon. “I don't know.” She said steely.

“Okay that's awesome. Well do you have any idea? At all?”

“Not really,” she replied evenly, folding her arms across her chest. “Only that it's probably blue like the stone on my necklace.”

“Ok...so I skipped dinner and left my work to go with you strangers searching for a blue thingy in the canyon all ‘cause this yellow stone chose me or some shit?”

“Yeah, Luce kinda just goes on whims.” Lance said, indolently tracing smiley faces onto the window pane with his long index finger. “You just gotta get used to it, man.”

“I'm conveniently pretending I didn't hear that comment for the sake of your future health, Lance.” Lucy quipped evenly without taking her eyes off the passing scenery out the window.

Hunk snorted, his mirth open and uninhibited. In the front seat, Katie stifled a snicker with her right hand, shooting Lance amused looks from the rear view mirror.

Lance, seemingly enthused and emboldened by Katie and Hunk’s laughter, smirked openly at the unresponsive Lucy, snaking his arm flirtatiously around her shoulder. Lucy tensed, pouting at the characteristically horrendous flirting. “Awww, Babe, you know you can't resist the Lance-Master. See, Hunk? She's stubborn. Gets it from hanging with me,” he nonchalantly pointed to himself before leaning in, eyes trailing from Lucy’s booted feet to her cascading curls. “Yeah, we’re basically soulmates.”

Lucy shoved none too kindly him off of her with a sneer, launching Lance face-first into the seat cushion. “Remind me again why we are such good friends, Casanova?”

Lance's muffled voice came through the seat, ending in a hopeful query. “Cause you love me?”

“Ugh, Lance give it up,” Katie’s slitted tawny brown eyes made eye contact with Lance once he seated himself properly again. “You've been flirting with Lucy since like forever. She obviously doesn't like it.”

Lance crossed his arms petulantly, leering at her. “Oh, come on Pigeon,” he replied with a smarmy smirk. “You know you're just jealous.”

Katie scoffed in immediate denial, her lips curling in a disgusted pout. She sunk into her seat, crossing her arms across her chest with brimming irritation. “Yeah,” she muttered with a sardonic huff. “That's it.”

“Leave Pidge alone, Lance.” Lucy glared at him upon noticing a barely perceptible rose tint dusting Katie’s cheeks. “Stay focused.”

Lance snorted, muttering something angrily to himself. Something that sounded like, “Everyone's against the hot one”, or “She's just jealous that she can't have all this.”

Lucy refrained yet again from rolling her eyes and simply punched his shoulder instead, becoming increasingly irritated with his growingly snarky remarks. Only when he shot her a wounded look was when she realized how hard she had punched him.

“Duuuuuude,” he whined petulantly, rubbing his shoulder with care. “Will you stop hurting me?”

“Guys, this really isn't helping,” Hunk called over his shoulder as the monotonous voice of the GPS began shooting out directions. “I need to hear Lou-Ann.”

Katie snorted, looking at her new friend with unmasked disbelief and amusement. “You named your GPS _Lou-Ann_?”

Hunk pouted at her. “Yeah.” He whined, seemingly offended.

“Why Lou-Ann?”

Lance rolled his eyes, scoffing at Katie. “Hunk has a _name_ for his GPS and you're wondering _why_ he named it what he did?!”

Katie stuck her tongue out at him, potentially still upset about the ‘jealous’ comment. “Oh, shut up, ‘ _Lance-Master_.’ She sneered.

“ _Jealous_.” Lance coughed into his palm, shooting Katie a provocative smirk interspersed within a mischievous snicker.

A thin silence descended upon the car, one deceptively innocent in nature.

And then Lucy was up from her seat in a flash, restraining a screeching Katie from blatantly attacking a heartily laughing Lance behind her. Katie kicked and punched, her face as bright a red as an overly ripe tomato. “Lemme at him, Lucy! Let me go! _I am not jealous!!_ ”

Lance’s laughter grew in volume, not-so-subtle snorts of the utmost mirth carrying to the rest of them as chortles escaping his lips. Lucy glared at him pointedly. This, unfortunately, only made him laugh harder.

“Uh, guys? I really need to hear Lou-Ann…”

“Ha-ha!!! You are so _jealous_ , Pidgey-Pie.”

“Don't call me that!!! You immature, conceited, insufferable, apathetic son of a bitch!”

Lucy’s face began to boil red with anger, her fragile temper getting ready to burst. With one strong push, Katie flew back into her seat and Lance into his own, the latter being shocked into silence.

“ _Enough_!!!”

They stared at her in wide eyed shock. Hunk sunk in his seat, as if he were attempting to melt away in order to escape Lucy’s wrath.

She crossed her arms in authoritative defiance. “I _know_ you don't want to be here,” she told them angrily. “I _know_ you don't want to be in this car, looking for something that you have no idea what it is, what it does or what it means.”

Lance took a sudden interest in his fingernails, and Katie’s honey colored eyes softened in understanding as Lucy ranted.

“But we,” Lucy continued in guarded fury, stabbing her index finger irately into her jean clothed knee. “Are _family_. And we stick with each other through thick and thin. Now _please_ ,” her voice lowered into a plea, all anger draining from it. “ _Please_ do this for me. I just want to know who I am. And I cannot do that with the three of you bickering the entire way there.”

“Whoa, whoa… whoa.” Hunk protested with a quick look to Lucy. “What did I do?”

She smiled at him kindly, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “You didn't do anything wrong, Hunk. Thank you for agreeing to come with us.”

“Yep.” He shot her a thumbs up.

With a final death glare to Lance and Katie just to show them who was boss, Lucy exhaustedly slumped back in her seat, shutting her eyes in surrender to sleep.

The car was blissfully silent after that.

* * *

 

Lucy had been pretending to be asleep for as long as she could remember, for her own benefit, not anyone else's. She had simply grown tired of the bickering and the flirting; for some reason, her friends’ usual antics had been grating on her last nerve. So she remained silent, listening to the lull of the engine, the soft purr of the tires as they scratched across the desert floor, the occasional hums and drums of fingers on the wheel as Hunk enjoyed his country station, and the monotonous voice of Lou-Ann as she led the way.

“Hey,” she heard someone hiss followed by a poke in the arm. “Luce, we’re here. Luuuuucy.” He poked her again, this time harder. Her eyes opened slowly, like chasms of frustrated crystal blue. In something that could be called an accident but in actuality not entirely one, Lucy’s arm slipped, slapping Lance clear across the face.

“God-damnit! Lucy!” He held his nose, gaping at her in shock. “Owwwww!”

She hissed in mock sympathy, tsk-tsking when she saw the glowing red handprint surfacing on his olive toned skin. “Ooooh, I am _so_ sorry, Lance,” she drawled in a deliberately slow tone, patting his cheek. “That was completely an accident.”

He frowned at her as she stepped daintily out of the car, her legs wobbly as they adjusted to the change. “Uh, huh,” he hummed unconvinced, scooching to the open door from his side. “I guess I deserved that, huh?”

She smirked at him from over her shoulder, offering him her hand as an olive branch. He smiled guilelessly at her in return, gripping her hand tightly. “Now we're even.” Lucy said triumphantly, pulling his arm hard, essentially yanking him out of the vehicle much to his amusement and slight dismay.

“Hey, guys!” Katie’s familiar voice echoed off the incredible rock formations. “Come on, hurry up!”

Lance and Lucy exchanged glances before quickly making their way to where Hunk and Katie awaited their promised arrival.

She found them standing upon a large marbled rock of copper and caramel, a perfectly good size for fitting all four of them. Lance hopped upon the rock nimbly, offering his hand to Lucy who took it with a small but earnest smile. With a quick tug, she was partially lifted off the ground, and standing upon the higher rock besides her friends. She brushed some spare dust off of her jeans and blouse, wincing when she felt the steaming hot pendant touch her hand.

“Ow!” She cried, jerking her hand away protectively.

Lance and Katie turned to her in concern. “Lucy? You good?” Lance asked, eyes narrowed in worry.

She looked down at the pendant, which shined like a miniature blue sun dangling from her neck. Honestly she couldn't understand how she didn't notice the vibrancy of it until now. “I'm alright.” She reassured them quietly.

“Whoa.” Katie gaped, eyes wide and excited. “It was _not_ glowing like that before, Lu.”

“At least we know we're in the right place,” she replied, leaping down from the rock and scattering pebbles with the force of her brown boots on the graveled floor. “We had better start looking.”

“Uh… question.” Three heads turned questioning towards where Hunk wrung his hands nervously, still standing atop the high rock. “How exactly do we know when we find it?”

Lucy frowned. “I'm not sure. But we have to try to look. At least for a little while.” She turned to face each of them, fueled by a sudden swell of gratitude for each of these wonderful individuals. Lance with his snarky flirtations and his insecurities that he kept safely tucked away from the public view. Katie with her smarts and her uncanny determination to do whatever was right, even if it meant suffering herself. And Hunk, sweet Hunk who had been so innocently trusting, so inherently vulnerable and nervous that it almost drove Lucy to tell him not to go any further in the quest to find her past.

They all looked to her expectantly, as if knowing that she was going to speak. She wrung her hands together, shuffling her feet and the rocks beneath them. “I… I just want to say that I am grateful to you all for helping me,” she started quietly, still looking at the floor. “I have been so lucky to have found friends that understand me, and are willing to aid me.”

“Understand her? Understand what?” Hunk whispered loudly to Katie, who shook her head, keeping her eyes on Lucy.

“So thank you all. You are all wonderful people and I'm honored to be able to call you my dearest friends.”

Lance’s eyes softened. “Awwwww Lu, the pleasure’s all mine.” He dismissed with an embarrassed bow.

“Yeah totally,” Katie chimed in. “We’re with you, Lucy. Always.”

“Uhhh…” Hunk raised his hand tentatively. “What exactly is this trip?”

“Long story short, we’re trying to save the universe from this evil alien emperor dude by finding this weapon called Voltron. And we're trying to find Lucy’s alien family cause she's from a planet called Altea which got wiped out by this other alien race called the Galra. So yeah. Really looking forward to it.” Lance grinned at him, patting the gentle giant soundly on the back.

Hunk looked as if he were about to vomit. Lucy paled. “Evil...uh...evil emperor alien thing? _Lucy_? Alien?”

Lucy nodded slowly, entwining his arm comfortingly with hers. “We should probably get started,” she chuckled nervously. “We don't want to be here when it gets dark.”

“Dark?!”

Lucy grimaced.

* * *

 

The pendant grew almost unbearably hot when they reached a small cavern, a barely visible hole amidst the marbled copper rock. Lucy jumped down from a rock, landing deftly on the balls of her feet. Her eyes remained trained firmly on the cave entrance, but she could hear the resounding patters of footsteps as her friends followed right behind her.

It called to her, almost a presence in her mind, a magnet drawing her in like a moth to flame. It was almost as if it were an old friend, coaxing her inside of a cozy house. The presence grew stronger with each step she took towards the cavern, until she could physically feel it there, a mass of energy at the back of her mind, swirling with untapped excitement and barely concealable anticipation. “Can you guys feel that?” She asked absentmindedly.

“Feel what?” Someone asked. Lucy didn't recognize the voice. It could have been either Lance, Hunk or Katie, but to her, right now, it sounded like the ambiguous tone of the GPS named Lou-Ann.

“That thing…” she whispered as the darkness of the cave swallowed her whole, surrounding her in prehistoric drawings of various battles and… lions? “Whatever it is… it knows I'm here.”

_It is searching for you just as you are searching for it. Just look for the large canyon, my dear. The necklace will know what to do._

The aforementioned necklace pulsed like a star, a glowing beacon lighting up the way to wherever this thing waited patiently for her arrival.

Absentmindedly, Lucy reached out a hand to touch the lion carving’s muzzle, stroking it with light, tender movements.

“Uh, Luce? I don't think that's a good–”

Whatever it was Lance was about to say, he would never get a chance to finish, for an eerie blue light, matching that of the necklace, set the cave aglow. The lion carvings’ outlines pulsed as if they had a life of their own, the necklace’s own light pulsing in synchronized rhythm with the eerie glow.

“Uhhhh… what's happening?” Hunk asked panicked as a blue light spread quickly across the circle below them, encasing them all.

“I…” Lucy began uncertainly.

He would never get a full answer, for within the next second, the very ground collapsed beneath the four, crumbling into dust and releasing them into the unknown chasm below. In the last second, Lance lunged instinctively for Lucy, his hand catching hers just as they began the difficult descent.

Lucy barely remembered anything from the drop, other than the ghastly screams bouncing off the walls surrounding her, the feeling of Lance's hand being ripped from hers and the oddly familiar feeling of falling ( _No! Coran! Coran!_ ). She shut her eyes tightly, willing for the fall to be over, feeling her own hair whipping fiercely around her and the tightness in her lungs like a rope pulled taught.

“Oof!” Her prayer was answered in an unexpected way when she landed not so gracefully onto a cement floor, a stab of pain ricocheting through her ankle as it buckled underneath the impact. Lucy whimpered softly, forcing herself to her feet.

Groans of her friends accompanied her, along with the silhouettes of them all, set alight by the soft glow coming from the still alive necklace around her neck.

“Lance?” She called out, her voice an echoing tremor. “Katie? Hunk?”

“Here, Lu,” a pain filled choke answered her. “We're okay.”

A rush of relief swept through her at hearing Lance’s voice, alive and well. “Oh, thank God.” She released in a single grateful breath, shutting her eyes briefly. “Oh, thank God.”

“Where… are we?” Katie asked, pulling herself to her feet, holding a hand out to a disheveled Hunk, who took it with an exhausted smile.

Lucy looked around at the sloped chasm, the icicle like rock formations and the slight pool of water by the entrance, making sure to keep the majority of her weight off her injured ankle. “I'm not sure. It appears to be some sort of hidden cavern?”

Before she knew it, an arm slung around her waist lifting her weight off her injured ankle, and kind blue eyes regarded her kindly from besides her. She recognized Lance’s spindly figure against her, felt the familiar pattern of his breathing and heartbeat as he helped her along. “I gotcha, Luce.” He said lowly.

Lucy smiled. “Thank you, Lance.”

“Uh, guys?” Hunk’s confused voice rang out, bouncing off each individual rock until it reached Lance and Lucy. “You guys better check this out.”

Their jaws each dropped.

Standing before them, encased within a fluorescent force field of some sort was a giant, mechanical blue lion.

Lucy gasped as her necklace went suddenly still, the light dimming, dimming, dimming until the light had left it completely dark, as normal and placid as it had been before they had left the orphanage.

Katie broke the silence, disbelief running rampant throughout her tone. “Is this it? Is this the Voltron?”

Lucy shook her head in dismissal, almost absentmindedly shaking Lance off of her personage. The energy mass in her mind had almost solidified, swirling with liveliness as if telling her, _I'm here. I'm here. I'm alive_. She stepped towards the lion, its yellow eyes trailing her as she did so. “It seems as if it's watching me.” She told her friends in a confused whisper, not once taking her eyes off of the mechanical robot. The odd presence in her head intensified, feelings that were not her own coming to the forefront of her mind and intertwining with her own emotions. A voice that was not really a voice swirled through her head, catching her thoughts in a desperate attempt to be heard. Again, Lucy was reminded of a kind stranger, who gently urged her forward. She could easily picture a smiling old woman in her mind, telling her _come, come child. It's alright._

“I wonder how you get through this?” Lucy mused aloud.

Lance shrugged. “Maybe you just have to knock,” he said preparing to knock his knuckles on the force field. Lucy snatched his hand away with a stern protest, not entirely trusting this thing with Lance’s wellbeing.

“Let me try.” She said to Lance, who hesitated before nodding slowly, stepping aside so that she could touch it. Her hand extended with deliberate slowness towards the force field, fingers brushing the edge before she spread her hand on the smooth surface.

For a second nothing happened.

But the lion came to life with a dramatic roar soon after the doubts began to plague Lucy’s mind, the creaking of the large beast signifying that it was rising to stand before her. The force field flickered weakly before disappearing altogether, leaving an open area between Lucy and the giant mechanical cat. Lucy yelped, jumping back back as the creature bowed its massive head before her, opening its jaw to reveal a futuristic set of stairs, leading to the lion’s mouth.

_The image of the lion suddenly ripped away, replaced with a stream of new images that she could not control. The blue lion, almost winking at her, swirling and spinning into the air around it. Blue light surrounded it, transitioning the shape into a streak of blue like the portion of a rainbow. And Lucy, Lucy was a part of it, she could feel the lion entwining its very being with her DNA, her soul. Both becoming until she knew not where it began and she ended. Until they were one. From the ground, Lucy could see four other streaks of light come into view: red, yellow, green and purple._

_They ascended into the atmosphere, triumphant and powerful, morphing into a giant humanoid rainbow man that wielded a red sword._ Voltron _. The blue lion supplied helpfully._ Find the others. Find your past.

_Pictures flashed before her eyes, fading into another before Lucy could even begin to understand them. A ballroom, elegant chandeliers and swirling dresses, an apple ensconced in a firm tiny grip, a laughing boy with large dark eyes and dark hair, a man with a floof of white hair and a deadpan expression, sometimes overtaken by childish mirth, a man who shared her eyes with silver white hair and markings similar to hers adorning his wrinkled cheeks, a gentle kiss atop her forehead. Recent pictures flooded in: Lance storming out of the room, his hands clenched into fists, Katie looking at her in disappointment, a sad smile lingering upon her face, Hunk crying, large body caving in on itself, bodies littering the floor like puppets whose controls were lying hopelessly across the room..._

_Falling_.

 _Falling_.

 _Falling_.

_Coran! Coran, help me!_

It was over as soon as it started, bringing Lucy headlong back into reality. She stumbled backwards, catching her breath as it was stolen away from her, leaving her helpless and vulnerable. It was silent, the blue lion looking almost smug as it stared down at her from its high horse.

“Whoa…” Lance gasped behind her. “Did you all see that?”

“Voltron is a robot!” Hunk cried emphatically, trembling with excitement. “Voltron is a huge, huge awesome robot!”

“Wait so… you didn't see the other stuff?”

They looked at Lucy confusedly. “‘Other stuff?’” Lance parroted, his eyes narrowing in concern. “What other stuff?”

The others frowned at her questioningly, as though they too had just caught onto Lucy’s odd commentary.

Lucy averted her gaze once she realized that they did not see their lives flash within their minds as she did. Perhaps it was due to the fact that the blue lion had shown a particular interest in her. “Never mind,” she dismissed half-heartedly as she began walking to where the lion waited patiently for them. “It's nothing important.”

_No! No, Coran! Coran!_

A shudder ran down Lucy’s spine, one having nothing to do with the damp chill of the cavern.

* * *

 

“You are the worst pilot ever, Lucy! Didn't you ever once watch Jay Jay the Jetplane when you were little?”

Lucy, who had been struggling to accurately pilot the blue lion for all of the ten seconds that she had been in the blue lion, did not exactly find Lance's comment to be that helpful. She pressed a promising looking red button three times in a petty response, glaring at him when the lion lurched three times.

Lance frowned at her after his initial freak out. “I'll take that as a ‘no’.”

“Slow down!” Hunk cried. “Oh my God, I'm gonna die. Oh my God, I'm gonna puke and die!”

“Hunk,” Lucy shrieked as she pushed a lever that lurched the lion forwards. “That's not helping!”

“Lucy you're gonna kill us all!”

“Not helping either, Katie!”

A squelching sound followed Lucy’s cry, accompanied immediately after by groans and protests.

“Did Hunk just throw up?”

“Yep.”

“Uh huh.”

“...”

Lucy grimaced, searching her mind for something that could possibly be of use to her. She wasn't getting anywhere with this lion, other than a few spins in the air and a few jerked movements that were questionable at best, horrifying at worst. _Please_ , she internally pleaded amidst the panicked cacophony of cries behind her. _Please do something. I've had virtually no training, and I don't want my friends to get hurt because of my amateurity._

The screaming stopped in a surprised jolt as the lion took off into the sky, Lucy’s painfully jerked movements becoming fluid and effortless. Hunk’s stomach gave an audibly uncomfortable growl. “Has it stopped?” He asked panicked, his face turning a moldy gray color. “Oh, please tell me it's stopped.”

As Lucy’s heartbeat slowed, she surveyed the unfamiliar controls. “It appears as if the lion has gone on some kind of autopilot. I'm not controlling it anymore.” The mechanical hum that resided in the back of Lucy’s mind turned approving, as if agreeing with her.

The collective sigh of relief was gratifying and offensive at the same time.

The hum became violent suddenly, the image of a large purple structure flashing like a warning in Lucy’s mind. _Alien_ , the lion seemed to say. _Stop it._ She mentally agreed, however that worked, and the lion’s hum momentarily retreated to the dark corners of her mind yet again. “Uh, guys?” She said. “It's telling me that there's an alien ship nearby. We need to stop it.”

“Whoa, what?! Aliens?!”

“Lu, it's _talking_ to you?”

“Not exactly.” She replied shortly, not really feeling up to explaining the whole ordeal to Lance in the time it took to possibly stop an alien ship.

Lance huffed impatiently behind her, most probably reading her train of thought perfectly well. The sky around the lion shifted smoothly from blue to a vast black, dots of starlight adorning the marbled obsidian wonderland. Marring the sight like a scar on skin was a giant purple ship, twinkling evilly with a pulsing purple glow. It loomed ominously over the blue lion, whose head tilted upwards to fully catch a glimpse of the monstrosity. The hum that was the lion’s presence inside of Lucy’s mind tensed, as if telling her to prepare herself for what was to come next. She tightened her hands on the controls, watching apprehensively as the lion zipped forwards, dodging the multiple laser beams the ship threw at them with effortless precision. “Get ready.” Lucy said lowly, almost guiding the lion better than she had been before their lives were at risk.

“Be careful, Lucy.” Katie placed a hand on her shoulder. “You've never flown anything before, especially not a giant futuristic lion.”

Her resolve hardened along with her hands on the controls. “I know.”

 _Now_. The lion seemed to tell her. _Trust your instincts._

Her eyes scanned the panel as the lion worked against the heavy fire, zipping and dodging. They rested upon a single button on the controls, which deepened the hum of the lion. Lucy took that as a sign of encouragement and with a shouted warning to her companions, lunged the throttle forwards. A jet of blue light launched from the lion's mouth with a triumphant and prideful roar, slicing the middle of the ship. With a decisive bang, a portion of the ship exploded into fire, cosmic dust and debris.

The resounding cheer was infectious, with Lucy and the lion joining in soon thereafter. It was, however, short lived, as the purple mass momentarily tumbled before gaining stability and speeding towards them at breakneck speed.

“Uh, guys?!” Katie cried. “Now may not be the time to celebrate! They're gaining on us!”

Lucy gritted her teeth in frustration, drumming her fingers anxiously upon the controls. Her eyes landed upon some kind of picture, flashing mercilessly as if the lion was trying to get her attention. With newfound confidence, Lucy smirked. “I'm going to try something,” she warned them with a guttural yell. “Hang on!” She pressed the flashing icon, launching the lion into hyperspeed. The lion, seeming satisfied with itself, pulled away from the ship and from Earth, a strange swirling shape of purple and blue coming into view.

“Whooooo! Good job, Lucy!” Lance praised as the ship lost ground. He frowned as the thing in space grew larger. “Now… what is that?”

Lucy froze. Why did this energy seem so familiar?

“Who cares?!” Katie cried, looking apprehensively back at the trailing ship. “If the lion wants us to go through, I say we go through.”

“What?!” Hunk protested, looking at Katie with wide, panicked eyes. “You say we go _through_ the swirly wormhole looking thing?”

Katie’s gaze was set on the thing as they drifted slowly towards it, the Galra ship on their tail again. “If the lion says so, then I'd say we do it.”

“I think Lucy should choose.”

They looked at Lance absurdly, his whose visage was oddly serious, hardened like a lattice patterned glass. He turned his solemn gaze to Lucy, his mouth set and blue eyes determined. “I trust your judgement.”

Lucy nodded solemnly and breathed a shaky sigh, shutting her eyes for the briefest second before clasping her hands firmly over the controls and pushing the lever to launch them forward into the unknown swirling abyss.

* * *

 

A momentary lapse in anything at all, no sight, no sound, no touch, no taste, no nothing, a quick swirl of light and then the lion popped out at the other end, a smugness that wasn't her own emanating through Lucy in the form of a prideful hum. She stroked the controls as if it were a pet. “Yes, we did get away from that alien warship, didn't we?” She muttered absentmindedly, feeling the lion’s triumphant hum pause to acknowledge her before taking on an affirming tone.

Hunk vomited besides her again, launching Lucy out of her thoughts.

“Eeeewwww, Hunk?” Lance whined from the back. “Why is your digestive system so bad?”

Hunk shuddered, promptly ignoring the proposed query. “I just hope we never do that again.”

Katie stepped to the side, away from Hunk. “Agreed.” She curled her lip. “What's next, Lu?”

“I'm not exactly sure,” she said. “I think the lion wants to go to this planet up ahead.” Lucy pointed to an upcoming planet, bearing some resemblance to Earth.

“Wherever that is, I'm pretty sure we're not anywhere near Earth anymore.” Lance said.

The hum of collective agreement was solemn and afraid, fearing the terrors residing in the unknown future ahead of them.

* * *

 

They stopped at a castle, one that's white metallic skin glowed in the foreign sun, the blue embellishments on it winking at her as if it were greeting an old friend. Lucy couldn't say, but it was as if the castle was familiar to her, like a memory from a dream ( _Spiraling hallways, gray metallic walls glowing comfortably around her, various paintings of the highest calibers adorning the walls, the fading remnants of childish giggles exploring the long abandoned halls like a ghost whose body had long since decomposed…_ ).

Before she knew it she was exiting the lion, and heading towards the entrance of the castle in brisk movements, only stopping when a hand on her arm inhibited her movements and brought her out of her stupor.

“Lucy,” Lance looked down on her. “Are you okay? You seem… anxious.”

“Uh… I think we're all a little anxious here, Lance.” Hunk reasoned from besides the lion, who had now seated itself placidly on the ground, eyes smug and newly constant presence happy in Lucy’s mind.

Katie stepped forwards, all-knowing eyes on Lucy. “You know this place, don't you?” She asked, her expression understanding. “This is from one of your dreams.”

Lucy nodded. “We need to go inside, no matter what connection I have to it. The lion brought us here for a reason.”

They exchanged a quick glance before nodding to her, as if telling her to lead the way. That which she did, the abandoned castle welcoming her home.

* * *

 

“I recognize this place,” she whispered gently, running slender fingers upon the dust covered tables, antique vases and blue lights that flickered to life when she spread her hands on them. “It's like I was just here…”

“Helloooooooo?” Hunk called. “Anyone there?”

They trudged on, Lucy leading them through the winding hallways and swirling staircases. Lance followed uncertainly behind her, unwilling to trust this unknown castle with his best friend’s wellbeing and Katie walked besides him, her hand perhaps unconsciously, perhaps consciously, separated from Lance’s by the mere breadth of a hair.

“Hellooooooooooo??” Hunk called again. “Helloooo?”

Katie glared at him. “Will you shut up, man? That's really annoying.”

Lance smirked wiggling his eyebrows at Katie. “Helloooooooooooo?” He drawled deliberately. “Aaaaaaanyoooooonnne hereeeeeeee?”

The gesture wasn't well received.

“Ow!” He cried. “Lucy, Katie just punched me!”

She stopped. “Quiet.”

“Hey, that's not very nice.”

“Shhhhhh! I mean it!”

“Lance, she's right. Someone else is here.”

Silence and then the thin patter of footsteps, a squeak of a heel upon rubber. Lucy instinctively tightened her muscles, subtly moving to stand in front of her family. “Who is here?” She called angrily. “Show yourself!”

Her answer came in the form of a blur, a deft figure that separated the four of them, stopping to hold a knife against Katie’s throat. Katie yelped in shock, going immediately still.

“Sure,” the figure replied, voice smug. “I'll show myself.”

Lucy brimmed with anger and fear at having Katie's life at risk just because she was the smallest and youngest. “How dare you,” she hissed. “Put her down. Put her down and step into the light.”

Her words must have had an unexpected effect on the masked assailant, for Katie dropped to the floor, and the mask flickered out of being, revealing a man with a stubborn set jaw, a good physique, long black hair, scars decorating his pale skin and unnaturally large dark eyes that were currently trained on her in confusion, shock and _familiarity_.

The blade that he held clattered to the floor.

His mouth opened agape, voice breaking with disbelieving awe. It was vulnerable and open, with desperate hope ringing out in the single word he spoke.

“Allura?”

* * *

 

_Tucked away in a faraway hideout, a witch felt a presence stirring deep within the universe. It was familiar; she knew it as if it were her own energy. Her charms rattled excitedly, as if anxiously awaiting the day that this energy would fall to the ground, lifeless and weak._

_She gasped greedily, feeling the light quintessence soothe her scratchy throat before it twisted to darkness in her presence yet again.  
_

_The witch smiled. She needed to tell Zarkon of this new development.  
_

_Voltron had been activated, and the Altean princess lived still._


	9. Vulnerable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith escaped Altea unscathed but he returns to the castle to make a shocking discovery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so so so so sorry for this sorta long wait and for the gory ness of this chapter. I’ve been super stressed lately cause my phone got hacked and I had to erase everything to get it unhacked. Anyways... hope you enjoy violence and disturbing stuff cause this chapters chopped full of it.

_Vulnerability_. It was a horrible word, entailing equally horrible things to befall the user or someone else entirely. It was also the only thing that Keith absolutely and positively hated, besides losing someone important, because, as he knew all too well, those people were limited in regards to him. For he had been ripped away far too early of his mother and father, left to fend for himself when he was much too small to do so.

He supposed he was grateful for Shiro. Shiro had been the only father figure that he had ever known.

* * *

  
(“ _Hey, you okay?”  
_

_The perpetual sound of the pounding rain quite nearly prevented Keith from hearing the voice. He had been sitting besides the steps of his favorite shop, worn clothes soaked and long tangled hair that brushed his shoulders uncomfortably. He hated the orphanage that his dad dropped him off at; everyone there either pitied him or picked on him, and so he decided to run away once and for all.  
_

_Screw them.  
_

_So this is how he found himself: lost and uncertain of his tentative future, staring with vague interest up at a large man with a prominent streak of white in his hair and an intimidating but kind smile.  
_

_“I'm fine.” He replied shortly, shifting his scarce weight uncomfortably within his baggy rain soaked jeans and averting his gaze from the strange man’s disbelieving one.  
_

_A hand stretched out towards him, inviting even though the current circumstances seemed dreadful. Keith noticed it out of the corner of his eye before flicking his disbelieving gaze to the man’s extended hand. Keith looked up into the man’s face, at the massive scar marring his otherwise handsome features, at the silvery gray eyes that shone with inner turmoil not common in a man so young and the slightest bit of acceptance. The man smiled reassuringly, as if uncannily understanding Keith’s plight. “You don't have to lie you know,” he told him, just the slightest bit of condescension adorning the tone. “I won't bite.”  
_

_Keith eyed him dubiously, flicking his gaze uncertainly to his face to the hand and then back to the face again._

_Absentmindedly, his hand extended out towards the invitation, as if he were inwardly accepting the man’s unspoken offer for help. Before Keith knew it, he had placed his own tiny hand into the larger one, his eyes meeting the other in surrender.  
_

_The man smiled in relief and triumph. “I'm Shiro. Takashi Shirogane”  
_

_Keith bit his bottom lip in pondering, surveying the man with potent distrust before he finally relented. He sighed._

_“Keith Kogane.”)_

* * *

  
He looked at the worn picture he always kept in his old uniform, tucked away for safekeeping and protection. It captured them perfectly on his sixth birthday. One smirking in muted amusement while the other proceeded to blow out his candles without his permission. Keith smiled, wistfully brushing his fingers over their frozen faces. The only two people that had never abandoned him out of choice.

The only two people that he had ever considered to be his family.

* * *

 

( _Today was Keith’s birthday.  
_

_The sword shop in Altea had been decorated with the requisite streamers and balloons that each child thought themselves deserving of on that one noteworthy day.  
_

_It certainly wasn’t every day where someone turns six. Or so Shiro had told him upon hastily taping a bow onto one of the scarce presents littering the table. Keith, having dismissed his guardian’s comment with an idle wave, kept his eyes trained firmly on the door, anticipating the tardious arrival of his best friend.  
_

_The door slammed open, whining incredulously as it was pushed unceremoniously into the wall by one bubbly four year old with tumbling silver curls and sky blue eyes that gazed curiously within a sweet heart shaped face. Her lips pulled into a grin as she laid eyes upon the birthday boy, and she held up the overly extravagant cake that the castle had most likely made especially for her very many whims.  
_

_“Happy birthday!” She exclaimed, setting the cake with serious carefulness upon the table besides the presents before she threw her arms around his neck, burying her face into his neck in her traditionally affectionate manner. “I can’t believe you’re older than me!” She muttered against him, a touch of childish envy in her voice as she played the incredulous notion in her head.  
_

_He chuckled, having gotten used to Allura’s hugs in the first week that he had known her. “Yep. I’m older so you have to obey my every command.” Keith teased, absentmindedly tugging a long piece of silvery white.  
_

_She pulled away with a frown that soon gave way into a smile that made his heart melt upon seeing his own rare genuine smile curling his lips.  
_

_Allura’s crystal blue eyes sparkled in ironically human innocuousness, a mischievous smirk replacing the heart wrenching smile upon her face. She laughed merrily, whacking him playfully atop the head before leaping away. Allura offered him a lopsided grin, her skirts whirling around her comically as she twirled once. “I call dibs on blowing out the candles!” Allura cried before sprinting away in a fit of mirthful giggles.)_

* * *

  
Keith smiled as the giggles resonated in his mind, the memory of Allura never really leaving, always lingering like a ghost. It didn’t matter, he reminded himself as he tugged his black uniform tightly around himself. She was dead anyways. Keith would never see her or Shiro ever again. He tucked the photograph away in his pocket, safely away from unwelcome eyes.

* * *

 

( _Altea was burning.  
_

_Keith had heard of Zarkon before. Allura had mentioned him once or twice amidst her usually meaningless ramblings. He knew him vaguely as King Alfor’s best friend; as the pilot of the black lion. Voltron was yet another one of the things he had learned about if only through Allura herself. The weapon that King Alfor created out of sheer intellect and cunning. The weapon that was capable of crushing even the most formidable of foes.  
_

_But now King Alfor was dead. A once good king reduced to a pitiful pile of ashes on the ballroom floor by Zarkon’s own hands. A prominent shudder ran through Keith at the very thought that a trusted friend could erect so much irrevocable pain and death in the royal house of Altea.  
_

_And Allura…  
_

_God…  
_

_He ran through the hallways, a numb Allura trailing behind him gripping his hand tightly as not to lose him. Some small part of him remembered that Shiro was still down in the ballroom, potentially facing the Galra emperor himself, but the larger part remained focused on keeping Allura safe and comforted. Shiro could very well take care of himself, but Allura… she had, after all, seen her birthday party crumble to ruin, had seen her own father disintegrate before her very eyes.  
_

_And Allura was barely five years old.  
_

_So through the castle they ran, steadily ignoring the blood curdling screams echoing accusingly around them, as if reprimanding Allura for abandoning her people in times of peril.  
_

_Keith inwardly screamed defiantly back at the voices. She was a mere child. She was only five years old.  
_

_It was only when Coran showed up did Keith feel safe enough to leave Allura in his capable hands. And so with a gentle brushed kiss to her cheek, a soft caress of some cascading curls that had escaped the confines of her elaborate hairdo, and a bittersweet promise, he left her, tearing through the turbulent chaos to find his guardian._

_Only a few minutes later would he come to realize that leaving Allura was the worst decision he had ever made.)_

* * *

 

Keith landed his pod in the back of the Altean castle, memories of his past life flooding back as his gaze swept the skeletal remains, the decrepit being that once stood proud and tall. The blue accents on the castle winked in the light, as if it were welcoming him home. He supposed it had been nothing less than habit that brought him back here.

It was the twelfth anniversary of Altea’s untimely demise.

* * *

  
(“ _Shiro! Shiro!” Keith called hoarsely as he tore aimlessly through the castle walls, glass shattering around him like fallen tears. “Shiro! Where are you?!” His heart thumped as the fire around him roared, the bodies littering the floor unresponsive and uncannily still. The castle was in chaos, servants running amuck, screams echoing fervidly around him, debris falling like the planet itself.  
_

_Keith fought the urge to cry, looking mercilessly around for a familiar flash of white hair, something that would reassure him of Shiro’s presence.  
_

_“Shiro!” He cried, sprinting amidst the anarchy incarnate, his eyes frantically sweeping the area. “Shiro, where are you?!”  
_

_“He’s gone, little one.” a voice croaked from the depths of the shadows. Keith froze, the boreal chill of the voice freezing his every nerve, frost creeping up his spine like the plague. Eyes yellow as sin flashed cruelly in the darkness, a robed hag stepping out before him, her tangled white hair whipping around her._

_Time seemed to slow to a sudden halt, the screams surrounding the two becoming longer, painfully drawn out. People’s brisk runs slowed to snail like paces, their faces frozen in a fear like no other.  
_

_Keith’s heart pounded unbidden in his chest with a fear he had never before felt, the cold pressing his chest down like a chilly anvil. The woman floated closer, as if walking on air, a sinister smile creeping across her lips, red markings like tears of blood staining her cheeks._

_Keith stepped involuntarily back, his breathing becoming rigid and hoarse. The hag smirked lowly at him, as if enjoying his fright. “He’s gone,” she repeated in that horrifying chalk-like drawl. “I killed him myself.”  
_

_“No.” He gasped.  
_

_“Yes,” she affirmed with a prideful grin. “Yes, he is dead. All of Altea is dead.”  
_

_**Allura**. “No, you’re lying.”  
_

_“I am not. King Alfor is dead. Takashi Shirogane is dead. Princess Allura is dead.” She snickered, but the sound was wind rustling through brittle leaves. “They’re all corpses, little Keith Kogane. I killed them myself. Sucked the marrow from their bones, drained the quintessence from their souls…”_

_“Shut up.” He whispered.  
_

_“Shiro put up a fight, little one,” she continued, circling him like a shark would its prey. “He was quite a champion, saving Allura’s life before I could get my hands on her.”_

_“Shut up.”  
_

_“I took great pleasure in killing him. He was a worthy opponent. Allura, on the other hand,” she tutted. “Allura took longer. I had to hunt her down before I finally was able to see the last of the royal line dead.” Suddenly she was besides him, the overwhelming scent of death and rot plaguing his nose and making him nauseous. Her breath, hot and potent, tickled his ears, the sinister laugh she uttered imprinted forever in his memory. “Would you like to know how I killed the princess, little one?”  
_

_Keith shut his eyes tightly, willing her away. He told her nothing.  
_

_The hag took this as an opportunity to continue. “I hunted her down, following her delicate little footprints through the snow. I frightened her by deliberately staying only a few feet behind her, allowing sticks to crack and laughs to ring out behind her. Eventually I grew tired of the waiting game, little one,” Keith sucked in his breath. “Would you like to know what I did next?”  
_

_Keith shook his head. “No, stop. Please.”  
_

_“I took her hair in my hand, and smashed her tiny little head against a tree, again,” she laughed. “again and again.” Her breath was hot against his ear, licking it like tendrils of flame; the smell of rotting corpses was even more potent than before. “And again, and again, and again, and again. Don’t believe me? Go look in the forest. You will see her brain matter splattered against the tree, her blood spilled on the white snow. Yes, the princess’ death was **fun**.”  
_

_Keith pulled away from her, taking off in a run. The images of his dead friends plagued his thoughts and hovered mercilessly as ghastly shadows as he ran and ran and ran, the sinister sound of the hag’s laughter following him as he escaped.  
_

_He found Shiro’s body near the castle, just as the hag had described him. His guardian’s body had been horribly mutilated, a recognizable feature being the floof of white hair a stark contrast against black. Keith howled once, before running to Shiro’s side, shaking him and sobbing.  
_

_“Shiro! No, Shiro! Nooo! Please! Please wake up! Please!”  
_

_Shiro didn’t answer, blank eyes giving away no answers and no response. His head lolled with each desperate shake, his face slack and still.  
_

_Keith gave a final sob before collapsing besides his fallen parental figure, scrunching up as small as he could as if employing the notion that if he did not move, then he was no longer there.  
_

_He wasn’t sure how long he had stayed there; it could have been minutes, hours, days, weeks. Keith heard the world pass him by, the fire of Altea raging onwards as Galra soldiers moved steadily on, pillaging and killing everything as they went. Keith learned from experience that if he stayed absolutely still, then they would think him dead, and they would leave him alone.  
_

_Shiro would want him to survive, after all. The man had been brutally murdered and still, his last wishes stuck in Keith’s mind.  
_

_When Kolivan found him, Keith was covered in grime and ashes from the thousands of corpses, painfully skinny, and Altea was blackened: a charred wasteland of what it had used to be. The Galra told him of The Blade of Marmora, and what their mission was.  
_

_The first thing Kolivan asked Keith was what he wanted to do; if he wanted to stay and mourn with the rotting corpses, or if he wanted to do something about the catastrophe._

_Keith replied immediately, rage and hatred marring the thoughts of the six year old, staining them a deep crimson.  
_

_“I want that evil hag dead.”_ )

* * *

  
He supposed leaving the Blade had been careless and impulsive, but he didn’t particularly care. Kolivan certainly didn’t care about him personally, not like Shiro and Allura had, and they rarely got into contact with the Galra empire that their were supposed to be fighting against.

Keith learned that The Blade of Marmora had only been cowards, unwilling to face them for fear of their own failure, and ultimately their own death. They were waiting supposedly, for a weapon called Voltron, a weapon Keith vaguely remembered from a few of his and Allura’s chats ( _He ignored the sharp stab of pain at the thought of Allura_ ).

And so Keith, overcome by his hatred for Haggar and his grief for his fallen friends, left. He promised himself then and there that he would take down the Galra empire with his own two hands, killing Haggar and Zarkon himself for what they had done to _Altea_. What they had done to _Allura_. What they had done to _Shiro_. What they had done to _him_.

* * *

  
(“ _Keith!” Kolivan’s booming voice ricocheted off of the walls, radiating authority and anger. Keith stormed away, running a hand through his jet black hair as he promptly ignored his leader. A feat quite looked down upon in regards to the Blade. “Keith! Get back here! You are not a child and I refuse to treat you as one. Now stop!”  
_

_He snorted, allowing the familiar rage to take over his actions. The door to his room slammed behind him, shutting him off from Kolivan. Keith ran another hand through his hair, throwing his scarce belongings into a bag. His knife, his leather jacket, his boots, a small photograph, a wrinkled birthday card and a small trinket he had found on the blackened ground of Altea in the midst of one of his various journeys to the dead planet. A small golden crown befitting of a small head.  
_

_With an infuriated yell he tugged the bag shut, slinging it over his shoulder and throwing the door to his room open.  
_

_“So you’re leaving.”  
_

_Keith stopped, anger seething inside him. “Yes.” He said evenly, turning to face the old Galra._

_“Might I ask why?”  
_

_“Cause I’m tired of this,” Keith answered, crossing his arms across his chest. “You’ve told me every day since I got here that we were gonna kill the witch who took everything from me. And I know you have men on the inside and stuff but you’ve been sitting on your asses for a solid eight years. I’m done with it.”  
_

_Kolivan’s pupil less eyes hardened like sulfur stone. “Didn’t Shiro tell you that patience yields focus?” he asked. “Didn’t he tell you that these sort of things take time?”  
_

_Keith snorted, anger retuning full force. “Don’t you dare quote Shiro at me.” He growled darkly. “I’m doing this for him and for Princess Allura. I’ll take down the hag myself; I don’t need your help.”  
_

_And with that, he got into the fastest pod and stormed away, promptly ignoring the outraged yells and protests carried to him by the open space. When he looked back, only Kolivan stood there, an unreadable expression on his badly scarred face._ )

* * *

  
The halls greeted him like a long lost friend as he slunk through them, small artifacts crumbled to the floor, and walls deteriorating like rotting plaster. Keith, having long since learned how to sneak carefully inside of a place courtesy of the Blades, did so apprehensively, his senses telling him that something was… odd. It was as if the entire castle was holding its breath, anticipating something that was to befall it in the near future. Keith could sense it in the tenseness, the eerie quiet as the small creatures inhabiting the castle stopped their chattering, leaving an unearthly quiet that reminded Keith suddenly of Haggar. His blood boiled momentarily, before he shrugged the feeling off as a mere paranoia he held for the crazy Wicked Witch of The East.

He entered Allura’s room easily, the castle having recognized him by his appearance and fingerprints as Allura’s friend. Keith had made sure vandals hadn’t disturbed this part of the castle by keeping it hidden behind a mural, and making sure the room only recognized him.

When he entered, the dust clouds adorning the dressers puffed up as if in greeting, the metallic bed frame sparking in the light. He removed the girlish tulle curtains surrounding Allura’s prior place of sleep and lied down on the comfortable bed that creaked under his weight.

He had been asleep for a little while… until the sounds woke him up.

Keith’s eyes shot open, his body tensing in instinctive defense. He strained his ears for another sound, anything proving that something else was inside the castle.

He wasn’t disappointed when a man’s voice boomed ‘hello’ followed by the immediate bickering of a teen girl and the other man. Someone shushed then not too quietly, and the group resumed their noisy trekking through the house.

Keith narrowed his eyes, deftly leaping to his feet as soundlessly as a cat. One part of him knew he shouldn’t have gotten defensive when dealing with thieves, but this was Allura’s house. And Allura had been his friend. He had to honor his promise to her by taking care of her house.

As silently as a mouse, Keith stalked through the empty hallways, coming upon the noisy group of teenagers that wandered seemingly aimlessly through the otherwise empty castle. He came upon a balcony, his gaze sweeping the area below for anything pertaining to the noises he had heard. His eyes narrowed and his lips curled into a defensive scowl.

There were four of them. Two males and two females. The smaller of the females was like a tiny bird, skinny, with shoulder length dirty blonde hair that stuck up in tufts and also brushed her shoulders. Keith took notice of the inquisitive look in her brown eyes as she looked at the castle, immediately coming to the suspicion that she was smarter than she looked. The big man was the second he noticed: chocolate skin and raven black hair with deep mahogany eyes that shone with innocence.

The next two intrigued Keith the most.

One was skinny like a beanpole, a green jacket tucked carefully around his shoulders. He gave Keith the immediate impression of a weasel, his mousy brown hair and caramel colored skin only adding to the observation.

The last was… interesting. She had platinum blonde hair that just nearly reached her back, and… her back was facing him so that was all he saw, other than her tensed muscles.

The last observation was that… they looked just like him. Humans.

“Ow!” Weasel Man cried. “Lucy, Katie just punched me!

“Quiet.” She said, her motions stopped. Keith froze, his breath hitching in his chest. Did she know he was here?

Weasel Man was not impressed. “Hey,” he whined. “That’s not nice.”

The girl silenced him with a firm hand that set Keith’s heart a flutter. What did that remind him of? “Shhhhh,” she hissed. “I mean it!” Keith tilted his head upon hearing her voice. It was light, just a touch of a British accent lilting it. There was something about her that just got on his nerves, he just didn’t know what…

“Lance, she’s right,” the big man said. “Someone else is here.”

Keith tensed, his curiosity turning to suspicion. They could very well have been a ploy, a trap sent by Haggar in the shape of human beings. Humans didn’t just wander into space. And the girl… no, he shook his head. _Impossible_.

He leapt from the balcony, landing solidly on his feet. The Blade of Marmora mask flickered into being, concealing his features from these intruders.

“Who is here?” Blonde Girl demanded in her soprano voice. “Show yourself!” Her lack of fear made Keith chuckle besides himself. It was always refreshing to have faced a worthy opponent.

 _Go for the smallest_ , Kolivan’s voice urged from the depths of his subconscious. _They are often the most vulnerable._

He was met with terrified stares and horrified gasps as he grabbed the bird girl by her bony elbow, bringing her flush to his chest. The knife he had always carried swung to her neck, pressing against the skin. The little girl yelped in shock, freezing underneath him. _Good girl._

“Sure,” he said with a chuckle, just to get the blonde girl riled up. “I’ll show myself.” Something inside him wanted so so badly to face her, but if this was all truly Haggar’s trick, he didn’t want to be rendered vulnerable.

“How dare you?!” The girl hissed. Keith froze in his tracks. “Put her down. Put her down and step into the light.” Keith’s blade clattered to the floor besides himself. The image of a small girl, one that hadn’t traveled far these past few years, returned with a vengeance.

(“ _Keith Kogane!” Allura scolded. “How dare you? Tell Shiro you’re very very sorry that you took his favorite knife without his permission! Or else, **I** will.”_ )

The girl... was her name Katie?...slipped absentmindedly from his grasp as he was rendered helpless under the voice, and despite all the inward pleas telling him not to face her, he did.

_No. It can’t be. Sweet God, let this be real._

It was as if the world was whirring about him in slow motion as he lifted his head to look at her face. And all his best and worst dreams were fulfilled when he saw her for the first time in twelve years.

She had lighter hair, he realized, but her skin was the same. Deep mahogany contrasted with the light blonde that now cascaded to her upper back and the Altean markings adorning her cheeks were gone. Her hair covered her ears from him, but he knew if he brushed it aside, that they would be the same as they had always been. Endearingly elfin points.

If this was Haggar’s doing, then he would make her death all the more painful, because this was brutal. This was raw. He was rendered vulnerable yet again as he looked into her blue blue eyes once more. Eyes that were trained on him in disgust, fear and barely there confusion.

He allowed his face mask to flick away, revealing his face to her.

Blue eyes widened in… _recognition_?

His heart faltered, the sheer possibility that this was _her_ becoming more and more real and more and more possible.

_That’s impossible._

His mouth shaped her name once before it flowed freely from his lips, tumbling in uncharacteristic nervousness. It was plainly desperate, a name he had not uttered for a near two years. If this was not her, and if this was another of Haggar’s cruel tricks, then he would very well kill her here and now.

“Allura?”

It went unmentioned just how much Keith hated vulnerability.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas! Thanks all for reading!


	10. Keith Kogane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fifth is found.

The silence in the abandoned castle was even more prominent than it had been before Lucy and her companions had wandered into it. Unsurprisingly, it was Lance who broke the unearthly quiet, subtly moving to stand in front of Lucy.

“Uh, can we help you, weirdo?”

The strange man blinked strangely at him, as if Lance’s intrusion had brought him unceremoniously out of whatever fantasy he had been having. Lucy opened her mouth only to close it again, tasting the odd word he had spoken on her tongue and admiring the familiarity of it. _Allura_. She poked her head curiously out from behind Lance to look at him closer.

He certainly was attractive, she thought as she peered unashamedly at him. Large dark eyes, nearly black, regarded them cooly from underneath thick black lashes. His hair was a dark contrast against the stark pallor of his skin, a sleek black river that touched the shoulders, his mouth a straight, hard line that probably rarely experienced a smile.

He trained those dark dark eyes on her then, his gaze softening like butter before flicking them back to where Lance stood protectively in front of her. The man raised a thick eyebrow, as though this situation was wholly unsavory to his tastes. His arm folded across his chest as his eyes languidly swept Lance. “No,” he told him abruptly. “I was actually gonna ask you the same question. Weirdo.” He added as an afterthought.

Lance narrowed his eyes and scoffed, as if the man’s physique and attitude had automatically proved to Lance that he was someone he actually abhorred. Lucy raised an eyebrow as Lance glared.

Apparently she hadn’t been wrong.

“What are you all doing here?” The man asked, dark eyes surveying them in suspicion. “This isn’t a disco club. Or,” he raised an eyebrow dispassionately as his gaze passed the nervous Hunk. “A haunted house.”

Lucy crossed her arms, coming to the immediate conclusion that this man’s smarminess was wholly unnecessary. She ignored Lance completely, stepping around him and facing the stranger head on. No one messed with her friends, even if he had mistaken her for another. “Who do you think you are?” She asked, taking notice as his face tightened with her arrival “Do you think you rule this place or something? Are you certifiably insane?” Lucy eyed the sword in his grasp with mild disdain and uncertain fear. “Who even are you, to think you can talk to my friends like this after _threatening_ them?”

The man blinked, shocked into silence, his face smoothing like a blank canvas. Lucy did not step down, eyes narrowed and body alert. His dark eyes flashed once, but it appeared to be in surprise, and then hardened disappointment. He placed the sword back in its holder, keeping his dark eyes trained on Lucy. “Sorry,” he rumbled, meeting her gaze unflinchingly. “I thought you were…” he faltered, eyes flickering with something akin to pain before they hardened yet again with distrust. “...someone else.”

Lucy blinked in surprise before narrowing her eyes. “Who are you?”

Dark eyes flicked up to sink into unyielding crystal blue. “Why should I tell you?” He asked irritated. “You just blatantly yelled at me for like no reason.”

Lucy crossed her arms in equal irritation. “Because _you_ , oh-so-kind-sir, just threatened my friend with your large pointy object of death there,” she gestured with a firm finger. “Now tell me who you are.”

Behind her, Katie, Hunk and Lance stared with wide eyes, perhaps blatantly wondering when Lucy had gathered more courage than they had. Before her, the unnamed man looked up at her with something akin to amused respect, a ghost of a smile touching upon his infuriatingly attractive features. A gloved hand extended towards her. Lucy eyed it dubiously before meeting his dark gaze once again. “I’m Keith,” he told her. “Keith Kogane.”

She allowed a practiced saccharine smile to spread across her lips as she firmly placed her hand in his. “Hm. I would say it’s nice to meet you, Keith Kogane, but considering the circumstances… I’m afraid I cannot say that. My name is Lucy.”

A blatant blink of surprise crossed his face. “Lucy. Hm. Okay.”

Lucy rolled her eyes for the main reason being that she found Keith Kogane to be extremely irritating. “The one you almost decapitated is Katie Holt.”

Katie gave a half-hearted wave. “Hey. Uh, for future reference, friends don’t threaten other friends with giant swords okay?”

“The one to my left is Lance McClain.”

He nodded, eyes narrowed and untrusting. “Sup.”

Keith did his best not to look confused. “Uh, hi.”

“And this is Hunk Garrett.”

“You’re not gonna kill me are you? ‘Cause you seem like the type of person that gets along better with weapons than people, and I really happen to like my life.”

Keith raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “Well I guess that depends on you,” he replied stonily. “Why are you all here? And don’t even try lying to me. I’m good at spotting lies.”

“He’s like Emma Swan.” Katie hissed in a whisper to Lance, who nodded gravely.  
Lucy rolled her eyes. “I don’t know why we’re here. All we know is that there’s a huge blue lion outside that saved us from this alien warship and brought us here.”

His expression softened in shock. “Blue lion? Like Voltron?”

Lucy blinked. “You’ve heard of Voltron?”

“Heard of it?” Keith said. “It was King Alfor’s greatest creation. It’s been missing for twelve years after he sent the lions away.”

“King Alfor?” Lance echoed, slinking up to Lucy’s side. “Like the king of the planet… uhhhhh…”

“Altea.” Lucy supplied helpfully.

“Yeah! Altea.”

Keith shook his head looking at them in suspicion. “How do you all know about Altea? How do you know about Voltron? You’re not Galra. You’re not Alteans. You’re all… from Earth?”

“Yes!” Lucy cried. “That is what we’ve been trying to tell you from the very beginning!”

His face hardened like stone. “You… don’t know who Haggar is, do you? Zarkon?”

Lucy shook her head. “We’ve never met them personally but I have heard of them. We are telling the truth; we mean no harm to you. I… just want to figure out who I am.”

“What do you mean?” Keith asked.

She suddenly felt very very small under this stranger’s piercing gaze, as if those dark eyes could penetrate her soul and learn all her secrets. She didn’t falter, though, unwilling to show weakness to this odd man. “I’ve been...diagnosed with childhood amnesia. I can’t remember anything about my past or my childhood.”

Keith looked thoughtful yet dubious at the same time. He regarded her doubtfully. “So what? Did you think you’d find your past in space of all places? Seriously?”

Lucy lifted her chin defiantly, squaring her shoulders. “Yes. I come from the planet Altea and I was rescued when the Galra empire demolished it. That is the only thing I remember about my childhood.”

A flash of pain surfaced in his eyes, followed by something resembling a small amount of hope. “You remember nothing?”

“That’s what she said.” Lance glared, scowling at Keith. “Now leave her alone. She obviously doesn’t want to talk about it with someone she just met.” The look he gave Keith suggested just who he believed to be the aforementioned stranger.

Keith raised an eyebrow, slightly annoyed by Lance’s snark. “I don’t remember asking for your opinion, Lance was it? I was talking to Lucy.”

Lucy groaned, eyes dispassionate. “Boys, boys. Please just stop trying to see who has the most testosterone, alright? You’re both very manly and very capable of making women swoon.” Lance narrowed his eyes, shifting closer to Lucy, as if protecting her from the big bad wolf.

Keith rolled his eyes, the small fleck of hope that was perhaps present, replaced by solemn disappointment and acceptance. “Anyways, now that I know that you don’t actually pose any threat to me whatsoever, I can go back to my mission and you can go back to figuring out whatever it is you guys want.” He waved briefly before beginning his way out, casting a small glance over his shoulder to Lucy, who frowned in petulant response.

Lance huffed, crossing his arms. “Good riddance.”

Lucy shot him a quick glare before turning her gaze to the retreating Keith. Something inside her twisted unpleasantly as she watched him depart. The shadow boy from her dreams came to mind suddenly, as sad and distant as he had ever been. It was his voice that coaxed her to stop him, his voice prompting her to look once more at the necklace, the winking black stone. Her head shot up, releasing a gasp. “Wait! Keith!”

His silhouette stopped his retreat, and a pale face turned to face her, dark eyes regarding her questioningly, warily. “What?”

She padded uncertainly towards him, until he was besides her and she could feel the warmth he gave off, could see the discomfort at being near another person for perhaps the first time in years. He stared unabashedly at her, his gaze inscrutable. Lucy held the necklace in her hand, meeting his eyes unflinchingly. “Do you… do you know what this is?”

He looked at it briefly, eliciting a startled gasp when his hands took it from her, warmth brushing against her as he did so. He glanced up at her fleetingly before pulling his attention to the silver necklace. “No,” he said, tracing his hands over the different stones. Blue, red, green, yellow. His finger paused over the black stone, as did Lucy’s heart. A second of silent repose passed, a pounding heartbeat the only audible thing.

And then his finger brushed the black stone, eyes as dark and imposing as the rock itself. Lucy let out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding when the stone winked its telltale responsive wink at her and Keith, as if telling her: _This is the fifth and final person. You’ve found him. Well done._

Keith gave her a startled look, dropping the necklace like it had suddenly gotten unbearably hot. “Has it done that before?”

She nodded, clasping her necklace back against her chest. “Once for each of us. Blue for me, red for Lance, green for Katie and yellow for Hunk. And now–“

“Black for me.”

Lucy nodded again.

“What does it mean?”

Lucy straightened, encouraged by his newfound interest and glanced back to Katie who nodded. “Katie has a theory.”

* * *

 

They took their respective seats in what looked to be a common room, complete with a futuristic looking couch and a few armchairs. Lucy watched anxiously as Keith paced back and forth, occasionally casting a glance to where she and Katie sat on the couch and then immediately going back to pacing. She pulled her feet up, tugging her arms tightly around herself, something about the scenario just barely escaping her memory. As if she were experiencing a flash of deja vu.

As though reading her mind, Keith stopped pacing and looked at her, really looked at her for the first time since he had called her by the wrong name. The look on his face was gone in an instant, and he returned to his pacing soon thereafter.

Lucy cleared her throat. “Keith.”

He glanced to her again. “Lucy.”

Lucy lifted her chin. “Would you like to hear Katie’s theory or do you just want to drive us all mad with your endless pacing?”

The look transitioned to a sharp glare, and he begrudgingly sat down besides Lance, who immediately shot him a look of supreme outrage. One of which Keith conveniently ignored. Lucy cleared her throat, casting an encouraging smile to Katie, who sat besides Hunk. The small girl fiddled with her hands in her lap, perhaps unused to all the attention the group was giving her. Her tawny eyes flicked upwards to sweep the room, touching upon each individual face.

“Okay, well, it’s not really a full-fledged theory like Lucy said,” she told them. “But more common knowledge and mere speculation.” Katie shifted the round glasses perched on her nose, causing them to flash in the artificial light.

“Kay, Pigeon,” Lance said, looking bored as ever. “What is it?”

Katie glared at him. “It’s about Lucy’s necklace.”

Lance’s attention shifted, eyes shifting nervously to Lucy. Katie grinned in triumph, as if she knew involving Lucy in her nonchalant speech would grab his attention much more efficiently than talk about science and hypotheses.

Katie rolled her eyes. “Anyways, you guys all remember the ‘vision’ we all got when we found the blue lion?” She winced, having always hated the term ‘vision’, especially since it could not be scientifically explained. Katie hated not knowing. And still, she looked around expectantly, eyeing the speculative nods each of her friends gave her in return. Keith merely stared in confusion, not having seen the vision in the first place. “Okay,” Katie continued. “Remember how there were five lions, right? Blue, green, red, yellow and black.”

Lucy’s heart pounded hard and fast in her chest, the information sinking in her mind and residing there. She touched the pendant that she had had forever, watching the blue stone flicker warmly in response to her touch. “My necklace,” she whispered. “My necklace corresponds with the lions of Voltron.”

Katie nodded, a glint of elated light flickering in her honey brown eyes. “Yeah! Exactly! Your necklace. It responds to each individual lion! And each of us!”

“Blue for me.” Lucy said.

Lance sat up straighter in his seat. “Red for me.”

“Yellow for me?” Hunk looked dubious when Lucy nodded.

“Green for me.” Katie grinned.

Lucy looked at Keith, Keith looked at Lucy. He paled significantly as the seriousness of the situation dawned on him. “️Keith,” Lucy said softly. “It chose you.”

“No,” he shook his head firmly. “The black lion chooses a leader. I’m not a leader. Not like–“ His eyes flashed in pain, and they flicked nervously back to Lucy, who smiled pitifully.

“Keith,” she repeated gently. “The black stone _chose_ you. The black lion _chose_ you. _You_ are the fifth and final part of Voltron.” Katie and Hunk stared in bewilderment. Lance glowered at him, looking between him and Lucy in annoyance. Lucy promptly ignored him, irritated by his odd behavior.

Keith regarded her like he was a cornered animal, his dark eyes frantic and frightened. “No,” he whispered again. “No that’s not true.” He leapt to his feet, shaking his head in disbelief. His shoulders taughened, face hardening in resolution. “I’m not doing this,” he growled, pointing a stern finger to Lucy. “Nope. No way. Voltron has been lost for a decade. How the hell do you people think that it’s even remotely possible to get it and defeat the Galra empire without dying in the process. You’re not trained!” He laughed mirthlessly. “You’re not pilots, not fighters, not anything else besides naïve children who found a weapon that they have no idea what it's capable of.” Another chuckle escaped him. “Nope. Not happening.” He whirled on his heel, stalking towards the door, which opened at his advance, and shut resolutely when he departed.

The four descended into shocked silence.  
“Well that went well.” Hunk said. “Nice going, Lucy.”

Lucy threw up her hands. “What did _I_ do?”

“You freaked him out.”

“Kinda sorta.”

“Big time.”

Lucy rolled her eyes. “Well what do you want me to do about it? We cannot just let him walk away!”

They stared at her, gazes hooded. Lucy frowned.

“Fine.” She told them. “I’ll talk to him.”

* * *

 

She didn’t find him by his vessel like she had originally thought. Instead, she found him in a large room, a black shape against the bland gray of the once elegant room. Her eyes roved the walls, at the blue lights, at the beautiful chandelier gracing the dome like ceiling, dust dancing in the wind and touching the chandelier. Lucy ignored the brief flash of deja vu, instead heading towards Keith, who stood, back facing her, in the very center, underneath the crystal chandelier.

“I thought it would be you who came to talk to me.”

Lucy froze. Keith turned around, eyeing her dispassionately, as though anticipating her arrival.

Her eyes softened as she crossed the floor to him. “Keith,” she breathed, watching as he backed away from her, a flash of pain appearing in his eyes before it descended to stoicism yet again. Lucy put her hand down, taking a sudden interest in the floor. “I know you don’t want this.”

He scoffed. “Really? What was your first clue? Me saying that it wasn’t me, or me storming off?”

Lucy frowned, a hum of irritation seething through her veins. “You know, you are not making it easy to like you,” she told him, placing her hands on her hips. “You really are quite rude.”

His eyes narrowed. “I’m not trying to make friends.” He said tersely. “Leave me alone.”

“Why did you come here?”

“Leave me alone.”

“No. Not until you tell me why you didn’t leave.”

“Lucy–“

“Keith.”

He looked at her bewilderedly for a second, as if he had forgotten who she was, and then he did the last thing Lucy would have ever expected him to do.

He burst into laughter.

Lucy crossed her arms. “It’s not funny.”  
He snorted. “I’m… sorry. You just…” that pain flashed upon his face once more. “You just remind me of someone. Someone I knew a long time ago. She was also really stubborn.”

Lucy frowned. “Where is she now?”

His face hardened again. “Dead.”

“I’m sorry.”

He shook his head dismissively. “It’s whatever. So… you wanted to know why I came here? Instead of leaving?”

“Would you tell me? Without taking my head off?”

He chuckled. “Yeah I guess I can. You did say you were Altean right?”

Lucy hesitated, then nodded slowly.

Keith’s gaze was unnervingly unreadable. “Okay. So let me tell you a story then. A story about your home planet…

“It was twelve years ago. Ironically, today was the day it happened. Altea had a royal family as you might know. King Alfor, his wife Amora and his daughter, little princess Allura. I… uh… I was really good friends with the princess. We were the same age and she took a liking to me that I’ve never really understood. Well, we were best friends and she invited me to her birthday party. Allura was turning five and she was having a huge ball. That’s what this room was for actually. Holding parties for the royal family. Anyways, I came to the party with my… my guardian. He and I found Allura just before it happened.

“You know the story, don't you? Zarkon, Alfor’s best friend, came back from the dead, eager to take revenge on the king and his family for the destruction of his planet Daibazaal. He killed Alfor in the middle of Allura’s birthday party, and Amora soon after. I did the only thing I could do in the situation: grabbed Allura and took her away from there, only stopping when she found her servant. I left her then, going to look for my guardian and leaving her behind. I… I escaped Altea, but I never saw her again. I come back here sometimes, just to remember her and what happened on that night.” He went silent then, his gaze solemn.

Lucy’s heart throbbed for this boy who had lost everything so so quickly. “I am so sorry,” she said. “Did you ever find your guardian?”

He stiffened, and immediately, she knew she had said the wrong thing. “Yes.”

“Where… where is he now?”

“Dead.”

“...oh.”

Keith’s lips pulled into a straight line but he said nothing.

Lucy placed a tentative hand on his arm. He flinched but didn’t pull away. “When you first met me,” she began. “You called me Allura.”

A painstricken nod.

“But she’s dead.”

“I never saw her body, Lucy and I thought that you…if it were just possible…”

Lucy’s heart pounded, breath hitching. “You thought that I could be the lost Altean princess.”

“Yeah.”

Lucy shut her eyes. _Could it be possible? Is it even remotely a possibility?_ She opened them. “And what if I am? What then?”

He looked at her. “Don’t mock me, Lucy,” he snapped. “I’m not in the mood.”

“Keith! Please listen to me! I am from Altea. I remember nothing of my past. I am around seventeen years old… a similar age to the princess. You mistook me for her. Keith, _please_. If you walk away now, you may never know the truth.”

“I’m not a leader,” he rebutted incredulously. “I can’t fly the black lion and I can’t command Voltron even if we do find it.”

“How do you know if you’ve never tried?”

“...”

She placed a hand on his arm. “Keith, _please_. Please do this. If not for me, than for the possibility that Allura is still out there. Do it for the people who are enslaved by the Galra empire. By the very people who _stole_ your life away. The alien race that _stole_ your guardian, _took_ your best friend and _ripped_ your life out from under your feet. Keith, you have the chance to change all of it. And even if we die trying, at least we died for _something_. _Please_ … don’t walk away now. We need you whether we know you or not.”

He looked at her again, a ghost of a smile gracing his lips. For awhile he didn’t speak. “You should be a public speaker,” he mused after thirty seconds. “You’d be amazing at it.”

Lucy said nothing, merely holding her hand out in invitation. He took it.

“Okay. I’ll do it. I’ll go with you. Only on one condition.”

Lucy nodded. “Name it.”

His eyes were like black pits of hell. “Zarkon has a wife. His witch Haggar. I want to be the one to kill her. No one else. She’s mine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Kallura Positivity day!


	11. What’s the Plan?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Voltron struggles to work together as a team. Lucy and Keith butt heads. Frequently.

“ _The blue lion has returned,” Haggar said to the emperor’s back, not quite looking at him and not quite standing at his side._

_She was, of course, but a lowly servant of the Galra Empire, one especially unworthy of standing at his side despite all she had done to see to it that the empire thrives. “And now I feel a resurgence of Altean energy.”  
_

_He, however, looked blatantly at her upon hearing the astounding news, a hated scowl twisting his features. The emperor did not usually display much outward emotion, having believed it useless and weakening, but now Haggar could sense the surprise radiating off him like potent energy. His glowing eyes narrowed in reply, becoming pink discs, subsequent hatred humming in his veins. “Alfor’s daughter lives?” He asked, his voice betraying a nearly twelve year anger. “How?”  
_

_Haggar remained impassive; she was merely a messenger. “I know not,” she told him. “But it is time to reclaim what is rightfully ours.” She grinned mirthlessly.  
_

_“Yes,” The emperor’s voice resembled a purr now, menace and sadistic pleasure thrumming through that one single syllable. “I shall wipe that foul race from the universe forever and take back Voltron. Contact my commanders.”  
_

_Haggar smiled and nodded, retreating back to her place. She had just the right Galra in mind to wipe out Princess Allura. One that was cunning, merciless, and unwilling to surrender until his blood ran rampant and his eyes no longer saw._

_“ **Vrepit sa** ,” she told the emperor, who nodded in agreement. “I shall contact Commander Sendak.”_

_A pleased smirk curled upon his lips. “Excellent choice.”_

* * *

 

Keith’s hooded gaze trailed Lucy as she paced anxiously across the room, cerulean blue eyes flitting desperately between him, the big man, the small girl and the weasel man, her dainty hands clasped nervously at her mouth.

He raised an eyebrow at her manner, not quite willing to betray his emotions upon seeing her panic. Everything about her was desperately and unconditionally familiar… yet entirely and revoltingly new on the scrawny orphan girl. The blue of her eyes, the smooth perfect mahogany of her skin, the rampant cascade of the hair that she–that Allura, he immediately corrected himself–had never been able to contain.

He had been so so convinced that this was her.

He had been so relieved when he had initially laid eyes upon her.

He’d been so hopeful that somehow, one of the only two people he had ever cared about had made its way back to him.

He had been so disappointed when she told him her name, a spark of confusion thriving in her oh-so familiar crystalline eyes when Allura’s name escaped his lips in a rare fleeting moment of complete shock and childish wonder.

 _Lucy_.

Short for Lucifer? How ironically fitting. The devil himself. The morning star.

Belatedly, scornfully, he wondered if sending Lucy to him had been the universe's way of taunting him, of crucifying him for the horrible things he had done in Shiro’s name. For the way he had lived his life thus far, in pursuit of Haggar’s death, his sweet revenge and the satisfying warmth of her blood on his hands.

 _Lucy_.

Keith wondered if she was specifically designed for him. A mere copy of Allura, of his dearest friends, sent to torment him with her memory. Having to look at Lucy the Orphan was painful. Having to stare into her eyes, so familiar but so strange at the same time, belonging both to Allura and to Lucy. He had trouble not cringing when he looked at her, at the shadow of what Allura could have been.

At her doppelgänger.

And because of that very strangeness and because of that very familiarity, he hated her.

The only reason he stuck with Lucy the Orphan and her band of human misfits was because for some reason, the blue lion had chose her. And there were five of them. Five lions. If Keith stuck with them until the very end, they could defeat Zarkon, defeat the goddamn witch, and avenge Shiro, avenge _Allura_.

Keith cast another painful glance to Lucy, noticing how the weasel man’s gaze sharpened intensely as he did so. Keith resisted the urge to bark a mirthless laugh. Oh, the dismay of unrequited love and blissful naivete on All- on _Lucy’s_ part. How interesting. Lance could have her, Keith decided. Keith noticed that Lance had known Lucy well. Perhaps for all her life based on their interactions alone. He on the other hand, didn’t know _Lucy_ at all. He had known  _Allura_ , sure, but _Lucy_ was not _Allura_. And he would damn well keep reminding himself of that, that no matter how much her doppelgänger resembled her, they were not the same.

They were not the same. She was a copy.

Even now as he watched her pace, he forced himself to feel nothing but bitterness and hatred. He forced himself not to notice the way she bit her lip as she sank into concentration the very same way that Allura used to. He forced himself into impassiveness as the girl’s crystal blue eyes flicked to sink into his own, softening in an almost angering concern once she caught wind of his murderous expression. He forced himself to merely watch as she sat down besides Lance, tossing a hand through her abundant curls, making them cascade gracefully down her back.

Yes, he decided. He very much hated Lucy the Orphan.

“So what’s the plan?” Keith asked, surveying his new four companions questioningly with a raised eyebrow. “We just gonna sit here and stare Zarkon to death?”

He got slight satisfaction from watching the doppelgänger fume, an infuriated red blush mounting itself upon her mahogany cheeks. Those blue eyes narrowed at him angrily. He smirked, having an odd sense of triumph upon seeing her infuriated.

“No,” she told him sternly, outrageously. “We are going to find the other lions.” Lucy crossed her arms. “Unless you have any better ideas?”

Hunk winced behind her. The little one besides him, Pidge, cast Lucy and Keith a slightly intrigued look, slightly twinged with something resembling protectiveness for Lucy. Lance just looked murderous and envious. Keith rolled his eyes. He ignored them all, only meeting the eyes of the one who was unintentionally causing him so much pain. Keith felt a mirthless smirk creep across his lips. Lucy turned red. “No I guess not,” he replied, draping his arm over the armrest. “So what’s your plan?”

“Did you not hear me?” She asked him incredulously, that self-revolving and ‘holier than thou’ visage practically irritating the shit out of him. “I just said our next step was to find the lions. What of that is so difficult for you to understand?”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “And how are you planning to do that?”

“I–“

“Do you have a more specific plan?”

“I was going to–“

“And since when did you dub yourself the leader? You don’t know much, Lucy. You don’t know how Voltron works and you definitely are underestimating the might of the Galra empire if you think you’re gonna find the lions without getting blown into tiny little Lucy bits.” He said purposefully, initiating her rage.

“Ex-CU-se me,” Lucy huffed, blinking in surprised outrage. “You don’t have a clue as to what I can do. You don’t know me at _all_. And I,” her crystal blue eyes flashed in vicious anger, heels of her boots clicking indignantly as she made her way to him. “Mr. Tall, Dark, Broody, and Arrogant, do _not_ take kindly to people insulting my lack of experience.”

He narrowed his eyes, caught up in the full magnitude of her blue blue eyes and subject to the huffed breaths being released on his lips with her proximity. Keith moved closer, his lips a breadth of a hair away from hers. “Yeah. Okay. You wanna know what I think? I think you’re starved of attention, you want to think you’re something special so you selfishly bring your friends into this little whim of yours. Well when you die, I promise you, I won’t lift a finger to help you.”

Lucy leapt back as if his touch had burned her, eyes widened in hurt. Keith scowled, ignoring the guilt coiling in his stomach and pushing it down underneath the newly erected walls between them. 

She stared at him blatantly, familiar eyes big and pain stricken. He watched as the weasel was the first to run to her aid, her super special little guy coming to comfort the damsel in distress. He shot Keith a vicious glare, one that Keith promptly ignored.

“Lucy, Lucy what did he say to you?”

“Luce? Luce, you good?” Pidge whirled on him. “What the hell is wrong with you? Have you ever even had a friend or are you just a natural born douchebag?”

He only had eyes for the defiant one in the center who steadfastly pushed away all unfortunates who attempted to comfort her, whose platinum curls cascaded down her back, stringy strands in her face unable to conceal the pale blue eyes like hardened aquamarine stone glaring at him with the same hatred he had outwardly shown her. Her hands clenched into fists, stance defensive as if she thought he would start throwing punches at random. He didn’t look away and neither did she. They were both too proud for that.

* * *

 

“So how are we going to find these lions?” Keith reiterated, tracing idle patterns on his knee as he stared Lucy down blandly. “It’s not like we know where they are.”

Lucy shot him a venomous glare. “I’m working on it,” she told him, fiddling with the necklace around her neck. “It's not as easy as you might think.”

“Yeah, dude, lay off of her,” Lance growled, indignation rolling off of him in waves. “She’s trying her best.”

Keith rolled his eyes, promptly ignoring the weasel man completely. He shot a disbelieving look to Lucy. “And you seriously haven’t considered the necklace? Or the fact that if you were _truly_ Altean, you’d be able to power the castle?” He put emphasis on the _truly_ , subtly questioning her claim to be the last surviving Altean. He glowered. It should have been _Allura_.

He was pleased to see a flicker of naïve confusion pass her face, leaving it blissfully open. Keith smirked, internally enjoying the fact that he had rendered her vulnerable. “Alteans can power the ship?” She asked.

A mirthless, knowing smile stretched across his face. “Well yeah,” he told her innocently, putting his legs on the table. “It belonged to the royal family. Alfor himself designed it.”

Lucy’s expression was unreadable for a brief moment before the characteristically foolish determination set in once again. “Well then I have to try,” she toyed with her necklace. “The necklace… it has some kind of significance. It holds the location of the remaining lions. I know it.”

Keith nodded. “Good. Then let’s get to work.”

* * *

 

He helped the orphan girl upon the pedestal where Alfor used to stand, unwilling memories of him and a giggling Allura watching him in secret rising to the forefront of his mind. Keith pushed them firmly back, forcing himself to accustom Lucy to the castle’s controls without grimacing in revulsion. Lance had tried to help, more like attempting to take Keith’s position entirely, but Keith had steadfastly refused his ‘help’, shooting back an impatient retort.

Lucy shuffled uncomfortably upon the pedestal, slender hands clenching and unclenching the risen paneled controls in nervousness. Her blue eyes glowed eerily in the artificial light of the castle, gleaming oddly similarly to the charms adorning her silver pendant. The girl looked down in confusion and then looked to Keith in a request for reassurance. He nodded, betraying none of the surprise he felt upon seeing that the castle’s power actually bended to her will.

Lucy let out a shaky breath and clasped the pendant tightly. The room seemed to hold its breath, her human friends watching attentively as the controls hummed, the light intensifying. Lucy closed her eyes and the light exploded into millions of tiny light particles. 

The collective gasp was amusing, and Keith corralled his expression into something akin to dispassion as the particles began to resemble the stars of the universe.

Lucy’s eyes opened, childish wonder obviously present and shimmering in them. “Wow,” she gaped, reaching out a trembling hand to touch one of the stars only to shrink back when it flickered slightly under the contact. She seemed to have for a moment, forgotten the animosity she had felt for Keith and him for her as the unashamed curiosity passed unbidden on her face.

“What… is this?” Pidge asked, eyeing the particles oddly. “Luce, what did you _do_?”

Keith turned to her. “She’s found the lions.” He said, voice slightly betraying surprise.

“What the hell?” Lance huffed. “Lucy, this is too weird. You don’t think that this is actually a thing right? What do you expect us to do next?”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “We’re going to get them.”

“Did I _ask_ you, Mullet-Brain?!”

Keith promptly ignored him, glancing to where Hunk and Pidge stood dumbfounded, eyes set alight by the thousands of silvery particles peppering the air around them. Pidge reached to touch one. “Whoa,” she gasped turning to Hunk. “I think they’re… coordinates.”

Keith raised an eyebrow at her observance. “You’re right,” he told her, casting a cursory glance at the orphan girl who stood in wonderfilled paralysis as she gazed upon the lights. “Lucy somehow had the locations. Just like she said.”

The orphan bearing the devil’s name looked at him. He promptly looked away, eyes hardening. “See this, guys?” He asked, gesturing to a large sphere of blue light. “The black lion is here.”

“It’s where the blue lion is?” Pidge asked, glasses gleaming with the blue reflection. She reached out as if to touch the shimmering projections of the twin lions surrounding the location.

Keith nodded. “Alfor kept it here. Just in case Zarkon ever attacked. All- someone once told me that he wanted to send them away. And only if the five lions were back here together would the black lion be active.”

“So it’s like sleeping?” Hunk asked.

“Yes.”

“So what’s the plan?” Lucy’s voice broke the odd calm that had washed over them like a baseball bat ramming through a glass window. Keith glared at her.

“Now I find the lions based on the coordinates you gave us,” he told her, folding his arms across his chest as if daring her to contradict him. “Unless you’ve got a better idea?”

Her eyes flashed. “So you want to go alone, into places where the Galra are most certainly surrounding or searching for, and retrieve the lions all the while not getting yourself killed?”

“That’s the plan.”

Lance smirked sadistically, looking happy with this revelation. “Yep. I agree. Good plan, Keith.”

Lucy shot a venomous glare his way before directing that glare at Keith. “No.” she told him.

He chuckled besides himself, amused at the idea of this little girl stopping him. “No?”

She set her jaw and stomped her foot. “No. No matter if you like us or not, the universe brought us together. And we are coming with you. To provide backup if not, to fight with you.”

Keith glowered. “You have no idea what they can do. _Especially_ to untrained humans.”

Lucy glared spitefully at him, slinking forwards towards him. He looked at her, refusing to be intimidated by a mere domesticated girl who knew nothing of fighting. “Funny,” her breath escaped her in a deathly whisper. “For someone who hates us, you seem to have a lot of concern for keeping us alive.”

Keith stared evenly back at her, refusing to give in. “It doesn’t matter how I feel about you personally,” he said. “You four are the chosen paladins of Voltron and you’re untrained. You have no chance against the Galra.”

“I’m coming.” Lucy said stubbornly.

“No you’re not.”

“I’m with Lucy.” Pidge crossed her arms. “We’re a team now. And teams don’t separate for stupid reasons.”

Keith’s blood boiled. “It’s _not_ a stupid reason!” He retorted.

Hunk raised his hand. “I’m with Keith,” he said. “Can I like not go? I’d rather not get eaten by a bunch of aliens that want me dead… or for food.” He twiddled his thumbs. Keith looked at him blandly.

“They’re not gonna...ugh.” He placed his head of black hair solemnly in his hands. “Can you all just let me do this?”

“No,” Lucy snapped, crystal blue eyes shining with a stubborn impulsiveness. “I’m coming. And if you’re only going to try to stop me, then I’ll go by myself. It’s _my_ family. _My_ past. I’m coming with you and I’m going to help you find Voltron if it kills me.”

Keith glared at her. Lucy glared back.

* * *

 

Keith maintained whatever slim scrap of dignity he still had by averting her smug blue gaze and keeping a straight face as he headed back to his fighter pilot and she to the blue lion. Her voice came in on his comm, as light and annoying as ever, a ring of triumph to it. “ _Where to first? Should we split up, you to find a pair and me to find a pair_?”

Keith scowled. No way would they stay alive if they all split up. “No,” he answered her. “I’ll take Hunk with me. Based on your coordinates, the yellow lion’s on a planet nearest to here. I’ll drop Hunk off wherever it’s closest and you can provide cover if we get any unwanted attraction.”

He was met with an angry barrage of voices from her side of the comm before Lucy’s dominated in a contemplative hum. A few ticks and then, “ _Alright. Hunk will go with you and Katie and Lance will stay with me. Are you sure this is going to work?_ ”

“No.” He answered honestly, with a bite of sadism. “Try not to die.”

He was treated to the amusing sound of her irritation. Keith smirked finding an odd sort of vindictive pleasure in what he could incite in her.

“Ok. Lucy? I’m gonna need your help on something else. The planet where the yellow lion is far. You’re gonna need to open a wormhole.”

A tick and then a confused, “ _What makes you think I can open a wormhole?_ ”

“You’re Altean.” He answered simply. “Figure it out and then we’ll find the yellow lion together.”

He could practically feel her indignation seething over the intercom, but she merely sighed. “ _Alright_ ,” she told him. “ _I’ll try. And then…?_ ” She ended on a high note, a posed question.

Keith set his jaw, tightening his hands on the controls of the familiar ship. “Then, if it works, we’ll go through it all together.”

Lucy was silent for a moment. “ _Okay_.” She said.

* * *

 “Okay… soooooo… what’s gonna happen next? What is this planet like? Is it peaceful? Are the people or aliens or whatever gonna wanna eat me or something if I go in and take this giant mechanical cat? Can I pee before we go? What about Lucy? Do you know just how bad of a pilot she is? Do you think we’re gonna die? Keith… hey Keith you’re not really listening to me are you? Ok, fine, fine I’ll just talk to myself. Wow, Hunk, you look great today. Thanks Hunk. Hey, Hunk, do you think today’s outfit looks good enough to put in my coffin when they kill me? Ehhh, I don’t know Hunk, but do you know what I could go for? What, Hunk? Calzones. Ooooohhhh… calzones. That sounds amazing. Hey, Hunk–?”

“ _Will you please shut up?!_ I need to be able to think and you’re just babbling on about god knows what!”

Hunk looked positively offended. “Hey, buddy. Calzones are not just ‘god knows what’ okay? They _are_ God himself.”

Keith rolled his eyes, stifling a groan. He turned his attention to the open space around them, wanting oh-so-badly for Lucy to _just open the goddamn wormhole already!_  The thin thread of patience threatened to snap at the slightest bit of pressure and Hunk was like a pair of sharp scissors, prepared to cut it.

“Dude, have you never had a calzone before?”

“Can’t say that I have, not that I really want to right now, big man. We’re kinda in a situation right now.”

“What situation? We’re floating around in space waiting for Luce to open up a wormhole. That’s kind of a boring-ass situation. Why wouldn’t I be allowed to talk about calzones?”

“You’re ranting.” Keith accused dryly, putting his chin in his hands.

“Uhhhh, yeah.” Hunk said. “Cause we’re basically waiting to die right now. Even if Lucy opens a wormhole, the yellow lion is gonna be a _bear_ to get. Haha!”

Keith sighed. “What now?”

“A _bear_! Get it? Cause it’s a lion?”

“What the hell is a bear?”

“Oh never mind.” Hunk dismissed in disappointment.

They descended into a blissful silence after that, and then the wormhole blinked into existence like a giant chasm of familiarity, mystique and possibility all in one. Keith felt his lips turn up in a slight smile. “Well whad’ya know,” he smirked at the nervous man. “Guess she managed to open it after all. Come on, big man. Let’s go get your lion.”

Hunk looked dubious and slightly offended. “Big man?” Was all he said.

Keith sighed. “Let’s just go,” he said, casting a glance to where the blue lion trailed just behind them. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know... Keith is slightly out of character. But I am a firm believer that experiences shape the person that you become and this Keith quite literally lost the only two people in his life and now he thinks a doppelgänger of Princess Allura has come to taunt him. I get it. And alsoooooo... Dimitri and Anya didn’t get along at all in the beginning so... ;)


	12. The Second Generation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Voltron goes after the yellow lion with many issues in their teamwork. A fearsome Galra leader eagerly waits in the wings for their return.

Lucy absentmindedly twiddled a strand of silvery blonde hair around her finger, her body both aching with exhaustion and humming with an unusual anticipatory energy. She still didn’t understand how she did it. How she made the wormhole. All she remembered was feeling a twinge of encompassing doubt and then, call her insane, heard a small familiar voice in her head urging her onward. It told her not to fear, it told her that this was her birthright.

It told her that this was her destiny.

And then Lucy had stepped forwards onto the slight pedestal, clasped her hands around the controls and concentrated on the small voice in her head.

 _Lucy_ , it breathed soothingly. _Don’t fear it. You were born for this. This is who you are, little one._

She felt a small smile touch upon her lips, the fog in her mind clearing as the owner of her conscience came to her mind. _Rae_. The smile became sad, her throat drying with the tell-tale prickling in her eyes. A single tear fell, and the energy that had been building inside and out released in one fell swoop.

She heard a collective gasp behind her, surprised and pleasantly awed by the swirling matrix before them, and then resounding cheers as her lifelong friends, her _family_ came to throw their arms around her in a loving embrace. Katie and Lance and Lucy. Lucy and Lance and Katie. Together, forever and always. Always and forever.

Lucy had returned the hug with a bittersweet grin, grateful for her friends’ presence and unyielding support. She lifted her gaze to meet the metallic one of the blue lion. Yellow eyes twinkled briefly, in what appeared to be a call to action. Lucy smiled at the thing, her own self doubts retreating into the deepest and darkest corners of her mind before they winked out of thought.

She set her jaw, turning to face her friends once more. It was time. Time to reform Voltron and to reclaim who she had once been. Who she strove to become once more.

* * *

 

The blue lion was quiet, contentedly humming as the amateur pilot accustomed herself to the controls and the feel of the giant lively machine. Lucy bit her lip as she ran her shaky hands over the console, taking and memorizing every part of the lion. She glanced ahead, the slight figure of Keith’s fighter jet flying just before her. And on her mind, the lion’s presence grew irritated, a stab of annoyance filtering through her bond. A brief image of a mischievous Lance flickered into being, followed by the return of the lion’s annoyance.

“Lance,” she warned without turning around. “Leave whatever it is that you’re touching alone, please.”

A pause and then a quick “Ow!”

Lucy tightened her grip on the controls. “As much as I love you both, I would rather you’d refrain from injuring each other, please. Lance, don’t touch anything. Katie, don’t punch Lance.”

A snort. “Yes, _Mom_ ,” Lance drawled behind her, snickering to himself when no one else laughed to humor him.

Lucy sighed for the umpteenth time that day and returned her gaze to the fighter jet before her, promptly ignoring the pair behind her.

“ _Lucy? Lucy can you hear me?_ ”

She swiftly got over the initial shock of hearing Keith’s voice over the intercom, instead deigning to press the communication button on the blue lion’s control panel and give a disgruntled reply. “I’m here, Keith,” she told him with a swift glance to Katie and Lance behind her. “We’re all here. Are we en route?”

The reply came in surprising quickness, with an alarming lack of snark. “ _Yeah we are, thanks to you._ ” He said. There was quiet for a moment, as if Keith were silently scrambling for something to say. In the end he settled on a steady: “ _Well done.”_

It wasn’t much, but it was Keith and even the tiniest bit of praise sent a rush of self-pride through her. “Thank you.” She released in a surprised breath.

No reply. A click. A monotonous hum. Keith had hung up.

Silence took over the cockpit for a brief instant, a sort of shocked silence that resonated with mixed emotions. Lance cleared his throat awkwardly. Katie shuffled her feet behind him. Lucy’s knuckles turned white from the pressure she was exerting on the unfortunate controls. She set her jaw, unsure what to make of the odd trill of warmth bubbling in her stomach, nor the unusual sense of accomplishment.

They continued to fly in silence. Keith didn’t call again.

* * *

 

“So are you and Lucy good now…? Or what? Do you just randomly give compliments to people you don’t like? Do you like me? Oh, God, please tell me you don’t hate me. Are you planning to kill us or something? Are you–?”

Keith held out an exasperated hand to the blabbering man, effectively silencing him in the third rant he had had since getting into Keith’s little fighter. “No. Not usually. I don’t hate you. I’m not planning to kill you right now but, Hunk I swear if you keep up this nervous ranting thing I’ll rethink that.”

He gulped, adam’s apple bobbing nervously. “Noted.”

“...”

“So have you always threatened to kill people who annoyed you or what?”

“Hunk–“

“Sorry, sorry.”

“...”

“Is there a reason you’re this broody?”

“Hunk–“

“Sorry!”

“...”

“No but seriously–“

Keith silenced him this time with a glare that was sure to make his fellow Blades take a step back. Hunk swallowed again, his dark eyes wide. He opened his mouth in what Keith presumed was an apology but Keith waved him off before he could get any sound out. He let out a sigh before the repetitive silence descended yet again. Keith bit his lip in a habitual gesture. “If I tell you one thing, just _one_ thing about myself, would you stop asking pointless questions?”

Hunk contemplated for a tick. “Depends,” he said. “It has to be a juicy fact.”

Keith groaned. “‘Juicy’?”

“Yeah,” Hunk repeated. “Juicy fact. Make me miss reality television because of just how juicy this fact is.”

Keith scoffed in confusion and outrage. “What the hell is reality tele– ugh! Fine. Never mind. Just let me think for a second.”

“...”

“...”

“Are you done yet?”

“Give me a second, Hunk!”

“...”

“...”

“How about now?”

“Stars _above_!”

“...”

“...”

“So is that a yes?”

“Just ask me a question and I’ll try to answer it honestly! Oh, my _stars_ , you’re annoying!”

“...okayyyyy… then… why? Yeah. Why are you helping us?”

Keith went quiet. Juicy fact indeed. As naïve and harmless as this man seemed, he knew how to get to the point. Why was he helping them? Easy yet hard. Simple yet complicated. How should he answer? What should he tell Hunk? Could he trust him with the truth? The real truth and not just the barest brush of the truth that he had spouted off to Lucy and her band of misfits? He opened his mouth. “Because I hate Zarkon.” He answered simply.

Well that answered _that_ question.

Hunk wasn’t buying it. “That’s all?” He asked doubtfully. “You just hate Zarkon? He didn’t do _anything_ to you personally, you just hate him?”

Keith ground his teeth together, now not feeling up to sharing his innermost thoughts and anguished memories with this man that he had just met. “Yep.” He said, popping the ‘p’ in a way that suggested no further commentary.

Hunk hummed thoughtfully. “So–“

“No more, okay big guy? You’ve got to go find your lion and I’m not going to be there protecting your ass the entire time, okay? If you make it back without dying then maybe, maybe I’ll tell you more. But just so you know, my life isn’t supposed to be entertaining to you. It’s my life. Okay?”

Hunk gulped, his dark eyes widening in fear. “Wait… you’re _not_ coming with me?” He looked down to the sandy planet below, to the blasts and Galra soldiers that attacked them from the ground. Hunk looked to Keith. “You want me to go down _there_?” He gasped. “Dude, what?! There’s like so many things down there that want to kill us!”

Keith smiled wryly. “They want the yellow lion. Thankfully,” he patted Hunk’s back as they landed. “It’s basically yours. So you’re gonna get it first.” Keith pushed the nervous man onto the ramp, much to his chagrin and terrified protests. “Remember our deal! You survive, I’ll tell you more! I’ll cover you, man! I believe in you!”

Hunk shot him an angry glare as the airlock closed behind him, leaving the lone pilot in blissful silence once more.

Keith ran a hand over his face, remembering just how annoying people could be at times. He let out a shaky sigh, calming himself before taking to the sky, the figure of Hunk becoming smaller and smaller as he got further and further away. Keith rolled his eyes, pressing the button on his intercom. “Dude, what in the _universe_ are you doing? Run! Go find your lion; don’t just stand there like a loser!”

Hunk’s reply came back startlingly quickly, more incredulous than Keith had ever heard it. “Dude, what do you think I’m _doing_? Kinda hard to stay calm when there’s a bunch of purple guys shooting at you!”

Keith shot at a few of the pursuers from above, exploding them into tiny Galra bits. He bit back a grin at the blatant descriptors of his hated enemies. Hunk had just become his new favorite misfit. “Just go, Hunk! I told you, I’ve got your back.”

Keith couldn’t be sure but he thought he saw Hunk shoot him an obscene finger gesture from the ground level before he took off running towards a promising looking cave. But, Keith reasoned, it was probably just his imagination.

“ _Keith_!” An annoyingly familiar female voice cried out indignantly over his intercom. He heard the outrage in Lucy’s tone and he wasn’t particularly in the mood for it.

“What is it?”

It came back in full forced incredulous anger, all of Lucy’s self-righteousness thrown at him in a single sentence. “ _You let Hunk go down there on his own?! What in God’s name is wrong with you?! We’re supposed to be a team!”_

Keith growled. He should have known Lucy would be quick to dismiss the effectiveness of his plan. She was, after all, personally invested in the large man’s survival. He, on the other hand, practically only cared about seeing Haggar’s blood staining his hands. It didn’t matter how entertaining the yellow pilot was. “He’s fine,” Keith told her sternly. “He has to be able to take care of himself if we’re gonna take down the Galra empire.”

Lucy scoffed over the comm, and then Keith saw the blue lion shoot purposefully towards the ground. He seethed in anger, and shouted at Lucy through the intercom, not bothering to yield to his scarce amount of patience anymore.

“What the _hell_ are you doing?! You better not go down there to help him. You’re just going to get yourself killed! Stay in your lion!”

Now he was certain Lucy gave him an obscene hand gesture as she exited the lion, essentially making her a brand spanking new target for the bloodthirsty Galra soldiers below. Keith let out an indignant snarl. Angry at Lucy and angry at her friends for failing to reign her in.

“Lucy! You get back to the blue lion! This move is impulsive and stupid and you’re going to get yourself killed! _Lucy_!”

She narrowly dodged a Galra soldier, breaking out in a sprint towards the area where Hunk had disappeared. Keith sent out a jet of light towards that Galra soldier, and another at one who dared get near the absent blue lion. Keith growled. “Son of a _bitch_!” He snarled as Lucy also disappeared into the cave.

He cast another glance to the blue lion.

“You two! Pidge! Lance! Don’t even think about following her. You hear? Or you can forget about the Galra. I will _personally_ kill you.”

He was met with silence and hoped that the message had gone through.

 _Great_ , Keith thought. _Now I have to cover Hunk, his oh so stupid rescuer **and** the blue lion. Great. Just awesome._

* * *

 

Lucy had known Keith was angry with her, but when she had arrived to aid her new friend, nothing felt better than seeing the relief plain on Hunk’s face.

They had escaped relatively unscathed, with Hunk being a much better amateur pilot than she was. He had dropped her off at her lion with no shortage of desperate apologies and gratitudes, had taken off after Keith’s little fighter, and then gone back the way they had came.

She landed in her own hangar, listening to Blue’s appreciative hums in her mind as she did so. Blue’s presence was becoming more and more welcome in her mind, the bond getting stronger as she got stronger as a pilot. She removed her helmet swiftly, the familial comfort of her friends by her sides keeping her relatively in a good mood. It was a good first mission, in her opinion. Hunk had gotten the yellow lion and they had made it through. The Galra had faced their first of many upcoming defeats.

Lucy smiled at her friends, her hair bouncing in cascading waves down her uniform. “Well I would say that was a victory on our part, don’t you think?”

Lance and Katie opened their mouths to reply, but something behind them made them blanch in shock and a bit of residual fear. Lucy frowned and turned around on impulse, looking straight into the fathomless black eyes of Keith Kogane.

Her query died on her lips like he had killed it. Keith glowered at her and she was certain that she had never seen that much animosity forced into a single glare. No one could intimidate like he could. No one. Lucy stared at him. He stared back at her.

“What?” His voice escaped him in a deathly whisper, like poison. He sounded like he was attempting and failing to contain his anger. “Were? You? _Thinking_?”

Lucy pursed her lips, but she said nothing, her surprise contorting to responsive anger.

He seemed undeterred by her lack of reply, beginning to angrily circle her like a shark would its unfortunate prey. She stayed still, knowing that running her flippant mouth would most definitely make the situation much much worse.

“You do _not_ exit your lion without my permission. Believe it or not but I’m trying to keep you _alive_ and what do you do? You deliberately just rush into the situation without a _thought_ of what you were getting yourself into. Hunk could have easily handled himself. He didn’t need you down there holding his _hand_ , Lucy. _I_ needed you in the air. _I_ needed you to help me cover him. _I_ needed you in your lion, helping me to keep him _alive_! You made a stupid, _stupid_ decision, Lucy. And you never thought about what happened to others when you went off on your suicide mission, did you?”

Lucy protested. “But I–“

Keith’s eyes flashed, his patience gone. “No! _No_! You weren’t thinking about _anything_ other than saving your friend. But we are in a _war_ , Lucy and I need you alive. No matter how I feel, _you_ are the last Altean alive. And you are the only one who can run the castle. I need you _alive_!”

“Whoa, whoa, buddy.” Lance interjected, placing himself in between Lucy and Keith. “Calm the fuck down, okay? Lucy was only trying to help–“

Keith’s eyes flashed again, obsidian pits of hellish fire. They trained on Lance, who backed off a bit but didn’t back down. Lucy commended him for his bravery. “I never asked you.” Keith hissed. “You’re just worried about _her_. You don’t care about this war. You don’t care about Hunk. _You. Do. Not. Have. A. Say. In. This!_ ”

Now Lucy was mad. “Leave him alone!” She pushed a stunned and infuriated Lance behind her, placing herself directly in Keith’s line of sight. She would make sure she was the only thing he saw. “He doesn’t deserve your abuse. None of us do. We’re new to this, you know! We have never _been_ in an intergalactic war before!”

Keith rolled his eyes dryly. “Yeah,” he shot. “Clearly.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know _exactly_ what it means! You’re inexperienced! All of you. We’re going to get ourselves killed before we even get a shot at Zarkon!”

“Oh come on–!”

“Hey guys!”

They swiveled towards the new voice, who was obviously oblivious to what was transpiring between the lone pilot and the feisty orphan.

“Did you see that cool spin thing I did with Yellow?! That was freaking awesome! Hey, Lucy? Do you think…” Hunk’s voice died off. His brows furrowed into a confused line and his chocolate brown eyes flicked concernedly between Keith and Lucy and back to Keith. “Are… you two trying to kill each other?”

Lucy lifted her chin and forced her lips into a shaky smile. “Of course not, Hunk,” she reassured the gentle giant, casting a sharp glare to Keith. “Keith and I were just having a disagreement.”

Katie snorted behind them. Lance’s brows furrowed in worry. Keith rolled his eyes in outrage. Lucy looked at him pointedly.

Hunk didn’t look convinced, and he glanced exasperatedly to Keith, as if they had been through this many times before. “Oh, Keith.” Hunk shook his head. “Can’t you just stop yelling at her? She did what she had to.”

Keith’s eyes flashed and he turned to Hunk in betrayal. “You’re choosing her _side_? I thought we were becoming friends!”

Hunk blanched. “Wait, what?! I have to choose a side?! You never told me that! Can’t I be friends with both of you?”

Keith rolled his eyes and turned fiercely on his heel. “Let’s just get Pidge’s lion.” He beckoned Katie over to him with a firm finger. She obliged. “Pidge, you’re with me. Hunk, Lucy, Lance… you stay here.”

Lucy opened her mouth in protest. “ _What_? No! Katie’s like family to me. I want to be there to protect her!”

Katie looked at her in what Lucy presumed to be exasperation. She felt a startling pang of betrayal at Katie’s expression and shut her mouth immediately. Keith shot her another death glare. “She’ll be fine.” He bit out. “ _I’ll_ be with her and _I_ am more than capable of keeping her safe.”

Lucy said nothing more, hoping that the mere ferocity of her glare made its point as it bore into the back of his infuriatingly handsome head. Katie cast her a brief apologetic glance before she followed Keith to his miniature fighter.

* * *

 

Pidge was quiet for the majority of the journey.

Keith was grateful for her silence.

Even if she was worried, she didn’t show it, instead opting to keep her steady gaze forwards as they glided across the river to where Lucy had said the green lion was located. Keith caught her childish wonder sometimes when he looked up from rowing; the little girl was perched on the helm of the canoe like a tiny bird, her mouth agape as she gazed unbidden upon the various harmless aliens that waved at her from the shore. She waved back every time, her naïve astonishment palpable.

Keith wished he was still that innocent.

Instead of feeling bitter towards Pidge, he continued to row the boat with the sloth creature that was just as smitten with the tiny girl as every other creature on this harmless planet.

“Do you think they’re worried about us?”

Keith looked up at her, straight into her large honey brown eyes. He pursed his lips. “Worried about you.” He corrected. “I’m pretty sure they don’t give a damn about me.”

Pidge frowned, so much wisdom inside her tiny body and large eyes. Keith shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah? You should have thought about that when you yelled at Lucy. We’re kinda like her family, you know.”

Keith snorted. Of course they were going to have this conversation now. “I’d rather not talk about this now.”

Pidge snorted. “Of course not.” She humored him.

The sloth gave him a condescending look. Keith glared at him. He stopped.

“Just why do you hate her? You barely even know her.”

Keith opened his mouth to reply, and then the sloth gurgled thoughtfully. Keith gave him a reproachful look. The sloth gestured to a temple and shore ahead. Keith sighed in relief. Why the hell were all these Earthlings wanting to know his deepest and darkest secrets? Why the hell did they need to know why he did what he did, why he felt why he felt. He hadn’t no patience for any of it.

Luckily, Pidge was distracted, in awe by the age and vastness of the temple. He stayed in the canoe, watching carefully as the little thing jumped deftly over the thick creeping vines that twined around the temple steps, her hair bouncing wildly and an equally wild grin on her face. He humored her by watching, amused when the girl leapt dauntlessly in the top, disappearing from view.

There was a brief rumbling sound, and then the green lion emerged from the top, Katie Holt ensconced safely inside. Keith couldn’t hide his amusement when the ramp lowered, and he met a childishly excited Pidge inside the cockpit of the lion. She grinned at him. “Next stop, The Castle of Lions.”

The handle lurched and the lion responded happily to Pidge’s order. One more tick and then they were launched in the sky, the sloth-like creature waving them goodbye from the ground below.

* * *

 

_Somewhere close, a commander with large purple ears, a huge metallic cyber arm and yellow eyes like sin looked upon a white speck in the sky, taking note of the bright Altean signal he received from it. There were three lions on it, he noticed. Three of the five.  
_

_Commander Sendak smiled in cruel satisfaction after receiving his orders from the witch. He would gladly abide by them.  
_

_He would kill the Altean princess. He would destroy the Altean ship. He would kill the emerging second generation paladins.  
_

_Kill them all.  
_

_**Vrepit Sa.** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have gained a new appreciation for Hunk while writing this.


	13. Purple Darth Vader: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Voltron suits up while Commander Sendak prepares to take the lions. Team Voltron begins Phase One of retrieving the red lion and Hunk and Lucy make light of a difficult situation.

“I’m not sure how to tell you all of this,” Lucy told the team once they’d all returned to the castle, the yellow and blue lions in tow. Her eyes cast downwards, to the bubblegum pink nails currently carving crescents into the sensitive flesh of her palm. “But I’ve found the location of the red lion.” She glanced up tentatively, meeting her team’s eyes.

Keith, who was currently leaning against the wall, eyeing her like a particularly sullen lion, frowned even more than he usually did. “And why is that a bad thing?” He asked in pointed annoyance. “You found the red lion. Awesome. That’s a good thing.”

Lucy glared at him. “You didn’t let me finish.” She huffed. “It’s on a Galra ship… a Galra ship…” she glanced down awkwardly to her twiddling thumbs. “...that’s currently orbiting Arus.”

“Wait!” Lance cried, blue eyes wide. “But we’re Arus!”

Everyone stared dispassionately at him.  
“I mean… we’re _on_ Arus.”

Keith’s black eyes glittered. He crossed his arms, staring down Lucy as if he dared her to contradict him. “So we fight,” he said. “We need the red lion to form Voltron.”

Lucy managed a tentative nod in his direction, surprisedly pleased when he reciprocated with an affirming nod to her. “Keith’s right.”

Hunk groaned. “Aw come on!”

Katie looked at him. She punched him in the shoulder. Looked back at Lucy. “So what’s the battle plan then? Lu?”

Lucy and Keith exchanged uneasy glances. “I believe that we should–“ Lucy jumped, her heart bouncing in her chest cavity as static filled the main monitor, and a giant purple head popped on screen, yellow eye and mechanical red glow of the other meeting Lucy. An unwilling gasp escaped her and she backed up a few steps, covering her mouth as if she could smother her own fear. Keith stiffened besides her, his lips upturning into a small glower.

The beedy yellow eye of the Galra glowed in pleased surprise and it zeroed in on Keith. A mirthless smile, an emotionless one like that of a painting stretched across his lips, white pointed canines peeking out. “ _Well, well, well. If it isn’t Kogane. Have to say I’m surprised to see you with this ragtag group of puny humans._ ” The yellow eye sweeped lazily over Hunk then Katie then Lance, and it stopped over Lucy. A cold shiver ran down her spine; it was as if that stare penetrated her very soul, he could see inside her. The inhuman smirk on the monster widened imperceptibly. Lucy bit back a small whimper. “ _Puny humans indeed._ ” The whisper escaped him in a breath, so inscrutable and faint that Lucy wondered if she imagined it.

She was surprised when Keith’s body suddenly blocked the yellow eye from Lucy, his eyes hard and cold and unremorseful. The man crossed his arms, his own lips turning to a hated scowl. “Cut the chat, Sendak.” He spat. “I know why you’re here.”

Sendak looked mildly intrigued. “ _Do you?_ ”

Hunk looked back. “Yeah Keith… do you?”

He was silenced unceremoniously yet again when Katie caught him with a small but effective punch on the arm. The large man glared at her. Katie promptly ignored it, instead choosing to look angrily at Sendak.

Sendak looked at Hunk for a brief moment, as if he were a particularly intriguing pet that had just done a semi-interesting trick, but then turned back to the angry black paladin and the girl behind him. Lucy froze yet again under that thousand yard stare of death. She glanced briefly to Lance, who looked horrified for her, his gaze constantly switching to Sendak then to Keith and then back to Lucy. He seemed torn between staying still and running to Lucy’s side. Lucy shook her head in reply, and he turned away, uncertainty radiating from him like uranium from a nuclear bomb.

“You’ve come for Voltron.” Keith was saying, his black mop of hair covering his menacing dark eyes from view. “I can assure you that we’re not giving it up without a fight.”

“ _Good_ ,” Sendak drawled in a catlike purr. “ _I’d expect nothing less. Emperor Zarkon will be much pleased when I rip the fragile skin from your bones, young Kogane, and bring him the last Altean kicking and screaming to his chambers so he can dispose of her himself._ ” Sendak leered at Lucy behind Keith, his yellow eye gleaming like a beacon. Lucy’s heart jolted but she managed a slight glare for the sadistic monster, feeling Lance and Keith tense besides her in anger.

“You will try.” Keith said, voice deathly soft. Should it have been anyone else, the warrior’s growly tone would have had them running for the hills, but Sendak merely grinned at his audacity, as if Keith were simply a liability instead of a brutal man more than capable of serial murder.

“ _I’ll do more than try_ ,” Sendak replied unaffected, and the screen blinked dark, the receding sound of his cold laughter echoing accusingly in Lucy’s head like a beacon of death.

A second of unnatural and panicked silence and then Keith turned to face the team, his face unnervingly unreadable and his eyes weirdly inscrutable, like black chasms of space. “Okay. We can’t panic here okay?” A pointed look at Hunk, who glared at him.

Hunk made a strangled noise in the back of his throat. An ungodly combination of something like a snort and a gulp. “You, uh, want us _not_ to panic? Oh, sure. It’s not like we have an evil purple alien Darth Vader who’s coming to– quote on quote– ‘rip the fragile skin from our bones’– and not to mention only four lions–“

“–technically three. Only three of them are in use right now.”

“Right, thank you, Pidge. Three lions. A castle that’s like yeeeears old. And an amateur group of teenage humans to fight. You want us _not_ to panic? I don’t really see how that’s an option right now?!”

Keith’s eyes hardened, lips forming an impatient scowl. “Either that or die.” He deadpanned.

Hunk laughed nervously. “You’re kidding right?”

Keith’s expression didn’t change. ”You’ll know when I’m joking.” He said. “It’s either we come up with a reasonable plan or we die. Simple as that.”

Lance shook his head, regarding their leader in disbelief. “Wow you’re just a huge bucket of smiles aren’t you?”

Keith glared at him. “I’d like to see you come up with a better pep talk!”

“That wasn’t a pep talk! That was ‘hey we’re all gonna die, might as well give up now’ by our least favorite emo leader, Keef Nogane.”

“Okay I’ve had enough of you, McClain!”

“Same here, Mr. Tall Dark and Broody!”

“ _That’s_ it! You are just _asking_ for a blade up your ass!”

“ _Enough_!” Lucy cried, shoving herself in between Lance and Keith, much to the boys’ surprise. Lance gave her a pouty look. Keith merely glowered at her. “That’s enough. _God_ , you two are acting like children. I would have expected this from you, Lance, but Keith? You’re supposed to be the leader here. How are we supposed to follow you when your temper is so fragile that you get mad at Lance’s horrible comebacks?”

“Hey! Luce, I thought you were on _my_ side!”

Keith stared at her. Lucy stared back at him. “There are no _sides_ Lance,” she replied calmly, not taking her eyes off of Keith. There was something familiar about him. Like a memory from a dream. _God_ , she had seen those eyes before. Where had she seen those eyes? She shook her head minutely. “There is only us against the Galra empire, and if you cannot get along then there will not even be an us. The Galra will destroy us. So are we going to fight or are we going to argue amongst ourselves like selfish children?”

Keith straightened. “Fight, obviously.”

“Yeah. Sorry, Luce.” Lance scratched his head, sending her a sheepish smile.

“We’re with you.” Katie said, returning the grin.

Hunk looked around nervously. The team stared back at him expectantly, watching as Hunk stared down at his shuffling feet. Katie rolled her eyes and then not too gently nudged Hunk in the shoulder. He looked up. Smiled awkwardly. “...what?!”

“Are you in?” Lucy asked.

Hunk met each individual gaze. Stared a bit longer. “Will there be snacks after?”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Given that we survive, I guess we can find some place to eat after.”

Hunk smiled happily. “Okay. I’m in.”

Lance grinned his easy grin. “Yessss! Okay, team cheer! When I say ‘Volt’ you say ‘Tron’! Volt!“

Katie rolled her eyes and didn’t say anything, merely turning away as if employing the notion that if she didn’t acknowledge Lance’s existence, then he wasn’t promptly there.

Hunk snorted in mirth.

Keith merely stared at him in confusion, opened his mourn as if to respond, closed it again and shook his head dismissively, starting off in the direction of his trusty fighter jet

Lance frowned. Glanced purposefully at Lucy who simply rolled her eyes. “Tron!” She cried in faux cheerfulness, raising her fist in a jesting manner.

Lance grinned again, his perpetually good mood rejuvenated. “Good enough. Now let’s go kick some purple alien ass!”

* * *

“This castle should have a particle barrier.” Keith said as he strode off towards where the lions and his jet resided. The rest of the team followed suit, awkwardly trailing him.

“Sorry, a what?” Lucy piped up, voicing the question that she was certain ran through everyone’s minds.

“A particle barrier,” he reiterated without breaking stride or turning back. “It’s a shield of sorts. Should be strong enough to hold off Sendak’s ion cannon.”

“I don’t know what an ion cannon is, but it doesn’t sound remotely fun.” Lance deadpanned, tossing Lucy a quick glance.

“Wow,” Keith replied. “That’s probably the only right thing you’ve said since I’ve met you. But yes. It’s not fun. It'll kill you and unless you consider dying fun, then you’d better follow me.”

“Kinda what we’re already doing.” Lance mumbled.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“Hm. Uh-huh.”

“So, Keith?” Katie piped up, her figure a tiny thing in comparison to the larger man besides her. He turned to face her, continuing his trek as he did so.

“Hm?”

“Where… exactly are we going?”

His eyes hardened, and his jaw tightened. “If we’re gonna fight the Galra empire, were gonna need something other than pretty dresses, boots and jackets.” He looked pointedly to Lucy who stuck her tongue out at him in an instinctive, childish gesture, to which resulted in shock wiping the stoicism right off his face and maybe, just maybe, a hint of a smile gracing his lips. His face hardened as quickly as it had softened, eyes becoming solid obsidian. “The paladin suits of armor. Yellow for Hunk, Red for Lance, Green for Pidge and Blue for Lucy.” He glanced back at Lucy. “And if you really think that the black paladin is me… then black for me.” Lucy nodded at him. Keith pursed his lips. “Come on.” He said. “There isn’t time to waste. Sendak’s coming and he’s not coming for a tea party. Let’s get dressed and get to the lions. I’ll tell you guys what I think the best course of action should be when we’re ready to go. Good?”

Lucy nodded for the group, who were wandering to their respective armors and testing the glass covers surrounding them. “Good,” she replied. “I will see if Katie can get the particle barrier ready. She’s quite smart.”

Keith nodded to her, an expression almost akin to intrigue gracing his stoic features. Something like an understanding passed through the two of them then. It was not quite friendship and not quite affection, but a mere sense of alliance. Not entirely hate and not entirely the other, but something right in between.

Tolerance.

* * *

“Bayards.”

“Gazuntite.” Hunk said as he absentmindedly fiddled with the yellow playing on his new armor.

Keith glared at him, the black and white of his uniform making his hair stand out like a beacon, dark eyes smoldering. Lucy bit the inside of her lip. “You’re gonna need bayards if you’re gonna be paladins. There’s four right now. One for each of you. Mine was taken by Zarkon but I’ll make do.” He pressed a button on the side of the wall, besides the glass casings that formerly housed the paladin armor. A flash of artificial blue light and then the bayards, four boomerang looking contraptions in the paladins’ respective colors, came into view. “They take a form for each paladin,” Keith said, his voice gruff as ever.

Lucy reached for the blue one instinctively, something akin to childish and human curiosity driving her hand. Her hand wrapped comfortably around the hilt of the thing, the complex weapon molding and changing to suit her every want, preference and need. The weapon became a part of her, twisting itself to Lucy’s own body shape and comfort. In the blink of a human eye, the boomerang had contorted into something resembling a sword hilt, a teal artificial light resonating in the small cracks and crevices. Lucy tentatively flung it, unleashing a sharp cry of shock when a tail of light released from the hilt, forming a graceful arch. It retracted as soon as she willed it to, becoming the hilt yet again.

“Amazing,” she breathed, testing the whip of light again. “It’s absolutely perfect.”

She looked up to find Keith surveying her with an unreadable expression, his dark eyes hiding his emotions like a mask. Upon meeting her curious gaze, he gave a single brusque nod before turning away entirely. Lucy frowned, her own eyes sweeping the room, pride overtaking her when Katie unlocked a grappling hook of sorts, an emerald green tail similar to her whip emerging from a chainsaw-like handle. The usual amusement bubbled to the surface when Lance shot her his easy grin and waggled his eyebrows, pretending to shoot her with his missile gun. Hunk looked to be struggling with his a bit, the large yellow machine gun heavy in his grasp. When he finally got a hold of it, his lips turned up in a satisfied grin.

“Awww,” Lance crooned to Katie, who glared at him pointedly, silently daring him to continue. “You’ve got a cute little bayard.”

Katie rolled her eyes and struck him with the emerald green hilt, producing a satisfying hissing noise as Lance was promptly tased and thrown to the floor with a feminine screech. Katie smirked devilishly. “Yeah,” she conceded nostalgically. “It is pretty cute.”

Keith shot them a look. “Okay. We good? Ready to fight your first Galra fleet?” Keith raised his eyebrows. “‘Cause if we don’t die, this won’t be the last. Come on,” he beckoned with a hand, leading them to the hangers where the lions anxiously awaited their arrivals. Lucy felt Blue’s presence at the back of her mind, impatiently wondering what was taking her so long. “Let’s do this.”

* * *

Lucy flew alone this time, flanked by Hunk and Katie’s lions. Lance had vehemently tried to stay with her, but Lucy had pointed out that Katie needed more help flying than she did, as the smaller girl wasn’t as well acquainted with her lion as Lucy was. Lance, after a few moments of childish protests, conceded with a pout, and stalked off to the green lion with Katie.

Lucy welcomed the soft presence of the blue lion in her mind, a gentle and content humming, happy and anxious to be flying into combat. Lucy tightened her grip on the consoles, ignoring the slight jolt of concern that the lion sent to her by way of their bond.

“It’s alright,” Lucy reassured her gently. “I’m just nervous is all.”

The lion purred soothingly in her mind, oddly understanding of Lucy’s situation. Lucy was grateful for that.

“ _Okay, Keith. What’s the plan?_ ” Lance’s voice sounded unfamiliar and muffled over the intercom, and it may or may not have been her imagination, but he sounded a bit angry to her.

“ _The Galra ship knows we have the blue and yellow lions but they don’t know we have the green lion yet. Lucy and Hunk will act as a decoy, pretending to give themselves up. Pidge. I’m gonna need you to get Lance into a part of the ship undetected. You two will find the red lion from there._ ” Keith replied.

“Affirmative.” Lucy said, sending the blue lion into motion. “Hunk? You alright with this plan?”

“ _Uhhhh… it’s a little risky but I guess._ ”

“Then let’s carry it out.” She took off towards the menacing looking ship, the yellow lion dutifully by her side. Lucy caught a quick sense of deja vu. This was basically an episode of _Star Wars_. Oh, god. Hunk was totally right with his Darth Vader analogy. “Let’s take out the Death Star, Hunk. You with me?”

The voice on the other side of the comm came in hopeful. Lucy chuckled to herself. “ _Can I be Luke Skywalker?_ ”

“Sure.”

“...”

“I’m Princess Leia.”

“ _Uh…well yeah duh. She’s a badass._ ”

Lucy laughed again, her face straightening when the ship loomed ominously over the two lions. After a few seconds of struggling, Lucy found the radio channel to the Galra ship. She pressed record, took a shaky breath and began. “Attention, Galra ship. Please do not fire. We are surrendering the lions to you.”

The reply came back immediately, the deep drawled voice chilling Lucy to the bone. “ _Good_.”

Lucy pursed her lips. “Katie, what’s your status?” She sent to Katie’s comm.

“ _We’re in,_ ” came the whispered response. “ _Keith says to tell you to find out a plan to take out their ion cannon. That way it’ll be much easier to evade them. Kinda random but I thought I’d tell you anyways_.”

Lucy’s heart thumped nervously, the true impact of what she was putting her family through finally making itself known, consequences and all. “Be careful.” She told Katie. “Please. I cannot lose you or Lance.”

“I _will_.” Katie replied, sounding oddly touched. “ _You too. Keep yourself safe, Luce._ ”

“I’ll see you when we get Lance’s lion. Tell him not to be too cocky, alright? His already inflated ego will explode when he sees what these things are capable of.”

“ _Kay_.”

“ _Hey, Luce? They’re activating some kind of tractor beam!_ ”

Lucy looked up, her head throbbing in her throat. They were bathed in a purple light suddenly, Blue’s presence a warning beacon in her mind. Lucy shut off the comm on Katie’s side, turning her fill attention to Hunk. “I think that’s the signal, Hunk!” She cried. “Run!”

The blue lion and the yellow lion lurched out of the beam’s range in just the right time, Hunk’s nervous breathing mingling with outraged shouts from the Galra on board. “ _It was a trick!_ ”

“ _Seize them!_ ”

“ _Bring me the Altean alive. Other than that… no survivors and no prisoners!_ ”

Lucy released a shaky breath. Hunk’s voice came in just as shakily, the sole beacon of light amidst a sea of combat and darkness. “ _Don’t call me ‘Hunk’ right now._ ” He said in almost a whine, a jet of yellow light emerging from the lion’s mouth and hitting the Galra ship. “ _I’m Luke Skywalker._ ”

Even as she pressed button after button, shot laser after laser into the enemy’s warship, Lucy managed a hearty laugh. “You got it, Luke,” she humored him. “Leia’s got your back. Let’s take down Vader once and for all.”

She heard his amused laughter like a ringing bell. She smiled in response and then shot at a weak looking spot on the Galra warship, listening to the outraged and infuriated cries of the Galra aliens over the intercom as they continued their barrage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own Star Wars or Voltron. Bummer.


	14. Purple Darth Vader Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Voltron goes to find the red lion. Or, Keith and Lance argue, Hunk and Lucy distract, and the unfortunate Pidge is caught up in the middle.

“Hey, Hunk?”

“ _Yeah_?”

“It looks like we’ve got company. Will you be alright dismantling the gigantic cannon thingy on their ship while I distract the fighters?”

“ _You got it!_ ” He replied, just as a swarm of red and black fighter pilots similar to that of TIE fighters from Star Wars launched into the air, headed straight for Lucy and Hunk.

Lucy heaved a shaky sigh and ran a hand through her hair before engaging the blue lion’s thrusters with a quick lunge. “Perfect.” She breathed in a way that suggested this situation was far from perfect. Lucy stole a glance back to the gigantic Galra ship, then to the fighter jets trailing her and Blue. “Tell me, Blue, when did my life become a _Star Wars_ episode, huh? Who’s going to come after me next? Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine or Kylo Ren?”

She sighed again when Blue didn’t give an answer, most likely wondering just what the hell was wrong with her paladin. When the ship came into view after a sharp turn, Lucy stole a glance to where Hunk’s lion was. The sky was chaos, purple lasers firing in doubles, triples, explosions as Blue’s amazing aim helped her to make contact with the enemy ship. Lucy grit her teeth and kept at it, praying to whatever god that could hear her to keep her friends safe.

* * *

Keith rounded the corner, Pidge and Lance in tow. So far, there had been little opposition, surprisingly enough. Once little Pidge Holt, technological genius, dismantled most defensives and the sentries that roamed the hallways, the walk to the red lion was almost a piece of cake.

If only the red lion’s paladin were a little less… Lance.

“Here kitty, kitty, kitty…” The scrawny man-child cooed in between chuckles. “Where aaaaare you?”

“Lance.” Pidge and Keith hissed at him.  
He promptly ignored them. No surprise there. “Come on! Coooooome on, kitty, we’ve got to save the world.”

The sound of something making an impact and then a groan of pain, and finally, a cry of outrage.

Keith smiled despite himself. The little hacker was becoming more and more likable by the second.

“Come on,” he said turning back. “We don’t have much time. Lucy and Hunk can’t stall forever and soon, Sendak will know we’re here. Lance, can you please stop fooling around and try to find the red lion?”

Lance whined, crossed his arms, narrowed his eyes, mussed up his hair and pulled his lips into a pout. “‘Lance can you _pleeeeeeease_ stop fooooooling around? I need to get back to wherever dark planet I came from so that I can brooooood in peace.’” Lance smirked.

Keith’s perpetual frown deepened. “Can’t you stop acting like a five year old for five seconds?”

“One, two, three, four, five. Done. Happy?”

Keith threw up his hands. “Happy?! That doesn’t even count! Adults don’t keep count, and they don’t count out loud!”

“ _You_ don’t count out loud!” He cried petulantly, shooting the former Blade member a triumphant smirk and holding a hand out to Pidge for a high five. One that she pointedly ignored.

“Lance… can we just find the lion?! We can bicker later!”

“Pidge is right,” Keith agreed with a grateful glance to Pidge, who nodded knowingly. “We need to focus here.”

“‘We need to _foooooocus_.’” Lance whispered in a quiet whine. Keith snorted out of annoyance, but kept walking forwards. Lance and Pidge walked behind him. Keith shot a painful glance back to Lance, who was currently pouting behind him but was soon sidetracked to Pidge, who had gone as white as a ghost.

“Pidge?” Keith said her name, anxiously, hoping to snap her out of whatever was going on in her head.

She blinked and turned to face them.

Lance and Keith looked at her uncertainly. Pidge’s mouth opened and closed yet again, only to open again. She bit her lip and shook her head as if shaking off all doubts about what Keith was sure was to come out of her mouth.

“I've been here before.” She said.

Keith’s heart stopped and for a moment, he thought she was joking. But one look into her eyes told him that she wouldn’t joke about this. His voice felt foreign to him, like it didn’t entirely belong to him. “What do you mean?”

She walked up to him so that he could easily see the golden flecks in her large eyes. They were sure and unyielding. “I mean that I was here once. With… with my family.”

“Pigeon…” Lance looked at her sadly. “We’ve been through this. Your family is gone. They’re dead, Kate.”

Pidge shook her head adamantly, eyes glassy with tears. She shot a dagger-filled glare at Lance, who immediately stepped back in confusion and hurt. This wasn’t like the other times she had annoyed Lance; this time, she was really, truly hurt. “Maybe.” She said. “But they loved me. They would _never_ have left me if they knew without a doubt that they could keep me. They _promised_! They _promised_ that they would come back for me!”

“Pidge–“

 _Slam_ , and then a brusque: “Here! They went this way!” A barrage of footsteps followed suit, coming closer and closer to where the three paladins stood frozen.

Keith swore under his breath. “Shit. Galra soldiers. They know we’re in the building. Come on, we’ve got to go. Lance, can you feel anything at all?”

Lance scoffed, “Feel anything? What is this, like _The Sixth Sense_ or- wahhhhh!”

Pidge grabbed his arm and started in a run, Keith close at her heels. Lance trailed behind her. “No time for weird analogies, Lance,” she said, wiping her face quickly. “We’ve got to find the red lion!”

“Holy shit! What the hell did Lucy get us into?!”

“The middle of a war, string bean,” Keith told Lance gruffly, inciting a glower from the latter. “It’s war. Get used to it.”

* * *

“Hunk!” Lucy cried out in panic as a laser slammed headlong into the belly of the yellow lion, sending it on a brief tumbling spree through space. “Hunk, are you alright?”

The response came back quickly, and a bit disgruntled. “ _Uh… I guess. Kinda hard to be Luke Skywalker when you’re trying not to throw up._ ”

Lucy smiled despite herself. “It’s alright, Hunk. I’m sure even Luke threw up once in his galactic adventures.”

She could hear the smile in his voice. “ _Awesome. Wait! What is that shimmering thing around the ship?! Is that like a forcefield or something?!_ ”

Lucy clicked her lasers experimentally, watching with dread as a dome in the form of a purplish sheen spread over the ship, blocking the lasers from penetrating. She bit the inside of her lip in anxiety. “I think so,” she told him. “It certainly isn’t a good thing. For us at least. Keith!” She focused her attention to reaching Keith’s intercom, all the while zooming through space, and saving Hunk from an oncoming fighter jet. Damn, she thought. She had thought multitasking was hard before, and that was just walking and chewing gum. Imagine what her earth friends would think about multitasking when faced with flying a gigantic metallic space cat and trying to get ahold of her new leader all the while under heavy fire.

Yeah, multitasking sucked.

“ _Lucy? What’s going on with you and Hunk? Still distracting?_ ”

“What is the force field surrounding the Galra ship?” She asked, taking notice on how another of Hunk’s attempted assaults was rendered useless by the irritating purple shimmer that surrounded the ship. “Is there any way to penetrate it?”

“ _It’s a particle barrier,_ ” he answered gruffly. “ _You can break it; you just need to hit it enough times. You guys good?_ ”

“We’re relatively fine,” Lucy said. “We’re holding our own.”

He sounded pleased. “ _Good. Keep it up. Lance still needs to find the lion._ ”

Lance’s voice came through the intercom, irritated at being upstaged. “ _Hey! Keith, shut the hell up. Lucy, why did I go with Keith?! Couldn’t I have just done this with you or something?!_ ” An indignant shout and then a barrage of shouts coming in as Lucy assumed Lance and Keith were fighting.

“Lance! Leave him alone! I need to go. Keith, just hurry. Find the lion quickly.”

A brief silence and then Keith was back on the line. Lucy assumed Lance was pouting or something. “ _Affirmative_.” The machine clicked and then gave a monotonous hum. Lucy was once again alone.

* * *

“Wait! I feel something?!”

“Are you serious this time or is this just another excuse for you to pass gas?” Pidge deadpanned. Keith snorted.

Lance snickered, momentarily distracted, but then Keith snapped his fingers in front of his face and Lance shot him a glare before focusing again. “No, Pidge, I’m serious! It’s this way!” He took off in the opposite direction without another word, leaving Pidge and Keith looking doubtedly after him.

Keith glanced to Pidge. “You sure he really feels the lion?”

“No,” she answered. “One time he thought the toaster was haunted cause he swore he didn’t put the bread in and another time he told me that he wanted to grow up to be a porcupine so he could stab people in the butt. He’s not very reliable.”

Keith sighed and started following in the direction Lance had gone. “Fantastic.”

He skidded to a stop, slamming his hand out in front of Pidge to stop her from moving as well. Pidge glared at him.

“What the fu–?”

“ _Shhhh_.” He silenced her with a hand just as the drone came into view. “Galra drone.” He informed her. “Don’t make any sudden movements and it won’t see us.”

It’s attention snapped to the two of them.

“Shit.” Keith swore.

“Nice going, leader.” Pidge deadpanned. “Hold on. This may be something I can fix.” She walked towards the drone. Keith swore once again.

“Pidge! What the hell are you doing?!”

He truly wasn’t expecting it when Pidge tackled the poor thing to the ground, the drone squealing and screaming indignantly as she practically ripped it apart. Keith took a few steps back besides himself, holding his hands up defensively.

The drone’s lights dimmed and then went black. “I’m gonna reset the controls…” She slammed the cover back on the thing, and the robot came to life yet again, noticeably more benign than before. Pidge gave him a cheeky grin. “And now it’s working for us!” The drone chirped cheerfully in response.

Keith looked at the pair in disbelief. “Okay, fine,” he said, checking experimentally around them before heading in Lance’s general direction. “You can keep it.”

Pidge pumped her fists. “Yesssss! I’m gonna call you Rover. You can follow us!”

Keith smirked under his breath, watching the little paladin and the droid she had just reprogrammed following behind them. “You’re freaking incredible.” He said in disbelief.

Pidge grinned in happiness. “Thanks!”

He patted her on the back. “You’re welcome.”

“AAAAAHHHHHH!”

Pidge and Keith broke into a run. “Lance!!” Pidge cried, running ahead, Keith and Rover following soon behind her.

They rounded the corner, Lance pouting in front of an unresponsive mechanical red lion, a red particle barrier wrapped securely around it.

“Lance, what’s wrong??” Pidge asked, jogging up to him.

“This goddamn thing won’t respond to me!” Lance glared up at the lion. “Hey! Buddy! It’s me? Lancey-Lance?! I’m kinda sorta your paladin?! Like Lucy’s magic necklace told me so!” Lance crossed his arms.

“Oh, good lord,” Keith said. “You need to earn its respect. I have to say, I don’t think whining and pouting are working in your favor.”

Lance reddened. “Oh well I'd like to see you try!”

“It’s _your_ lion!”

“So what?!”

“So _you_ need to activate it!”

“At least I _have_ a lion.”

“At least I don’t want to be a porcupine so I can go around poking people in the _butt_!”

Lance glared at Pidge. “Pidge, you promised you’d never tell anyone about that!”

“Guys we don’t have time for this!” Pidge cried. “Rover says they’re coming!”

“Shit.”

“Don’t you shit me!”

“Lance… shut _up_!”

“ _You_ shut up!”

“Both of you shut up!”

Silence descended briefly. Then all hell broke loose.

“Oh, fuck.” Keith said.

* * *

It was almost a relief to be caught up in the heat of battle; it partly took away from Lance’s irritatingly horrible comments and his equally annoying persistence. The blaster noises and voices coming from the doorway were certainly more preferable to him. Keith had had more experience with bloodthirsty tyrants than with cocky teenage boys.

Keith and Pidge went to a back to back stance, unleashing their shields as to block themselves from the crushing blows. Keith cast a desperate glance to Lance. “Lance! If you were going to bond with your lion, now would be a pretty good time!”

He didn’t hear the other man’s reply, but he assumed it was snarky. Keith sighed and effortlessly sliced through a sentry soldier with his old Blade of Marmora blade. “Pidge! To your left!”

Pidge cried out in pain when a sentry landed a crushing blow, and she faltered briefly. Keith’s eyes widened as she stumbled backwards, holding her injured shoulder while still holding back a barrage of soldiers.

Keith let out an ear piercing cry and in perfect form, he sliced three soldiers clean in half, forcing them to small pieces on the ground. Pidge, injured but conscious, shot him a grateful glance before cutting one across the face with her grapple. It was poor form, Keith mused to himself, but she held great potential.

“Lance! How’s it going over there?”

“Do you like _Mean Girls_? It’s my favorite movie. I like to watch it with Lucy but not Pidge cause she always makes fun of the fact that I cover my popcorn in ketchup–“

Keith rolled his eyes. “Seriously?! I don’t even know what you’re talking about but it’s obviously not working!”

“Hey! I’m trying to bond with Red!”

“By talking about stars know what?!”

Pidge cried out in sudden pain, and stumbled backwards, her armor scratched and face bruised, a large red gash in her side. Her face crumpled in agony, and she collapsed in a heap on the floor. Before Keith could even say her name, Lance had run to her his face determined, beyard taking the form of a missile gun. He shot once, twice, three times never missing. Lance for once was without commentary, taking a protective formation in front of the fallen Pidge. His face was set in stone, vengeful fury in his eyes. Together, he and Keith took down the last of the sentry soldiers, and when they were all down, the red paladin ran to his fallen teammate, panic evident in his eyes. And then he gripped her shoulders, shaking her fervently.

“Pidge! Pidge! Katie! Oh, hell! _Katie_! Jesus Christ!”

Her eyelids fluttered, honey gold eyes shaded slightly by hooded eyelids and dark lashes. Amazingly, when she laid her eyes on Lance, she smiled, and she did something so inherently simple but also so very telling.

She _looked_ at him.

She _looked_ at him, her tired eyes sweeping his form for injuries while he watched oblivious.

She _looked_ at him, body relaxed as can be with his hands cradling her shoulders.

She _looked_ at him with more love in her gaze than Keith had ever seen anyone give anyone else.

And when he saw Lance’s eyes, then he understood perfectly. There was no romantic love in his eyes, just a familial affection like one would bestow upon a sister. Pidge stared at Lance like he hung the moon and Lance didn’t even notice.

He didn’t love her. Not the way Pidge did him.

Keith’s head swivels to the door once more, the sound of pounding footsteps coming closer and closer snapping him, Lance and Pidge out of their trance. They could hear the angry yells echoing down the hall, accompanying the footsteps. Keith estimated that there were around ten Galra soldiers coming to kill them. And they were not happy.

“Move!” He cried, helping Lance move the limp Pidge under their arms, wishing for some kind, any kind of miracle.

His wish was indeed granted in the nick of time and it came in the form of a metallic banging behind them, and a subsequent triumphant roar. Lance and Keith turned around just as the Galra warriors entered the room, guns ablaze and features annoyed, like a toddler whose docile pet had bit him. The red lion stepped forwards, gave another mighty roar, and opened its mouth for the three paladins to enter. Lance grabbed Pidge and Keith unsheathed his shield, moving slowly backwards into the lion’s mouth as the Galra advanced slowly.

“Lance, pull back, _now_!”

The one and only time Lance listened to Keith was at this moment, for the lion’s mouth slammed shut, and Keith ran to Pidge’s side, checking her pulse. Rover, her little drone, hovered uncertainly as Lance pummeled the accelerator, comming Lucy and Hunk outside.

“We got it! Back to the castle we go!”

Pidge looked at Keith knowingly. He cast a glance to Lance and then back to her, watching her expression sadden before her eyes fluttered shut and she laid her head in his lap. “You did good, kiddo.” Keith told her. “Trust me. I don’t give compliments lightly. Hey, bean pole. You did good too.”

Lance snorted.

“Seriously. The red lion chose you for a reason. You proved to her that you have a heart. You put Pidge before yourself and you protected her without faltering. That takes guts.”

“She’s important to me.” Lance said. “Like family.”

Keith hummed thoughtfully.

Lance shot him a wicked glare. “So is _Lucy_ ,” he said pointedly. “ _Lucy_ is also family.”

Keith frowned. “Am I missing something here?”

“She’s my best friend, Kogane.”

“Okay… and?”

His eyes flashed and his hand tightened on the controls. “And I’ve seen the way she looks at you! Look, I know her. She’s spent all her life looking for her family, and somehow she’s come to the conclusion that it’s out here in this freaking space war. If you ask me, she’s seen too much _Star Wars_. Her parents are probably just ordinary humans who didn’t want her and that’s that. But she’s got it in her head that she’s someone special and if she’s not then _I’m_ gonna have to break it to her. And it’s gonna be _me_ comforting her like always. It’s _always_ been me. Right now she looks at you like you hung the moon or something and I don’t like it. Cause one day, you’re gonna break her heart and I’m gonna be there to pick up the pieces again. Leave her the hell alone, Kogane. She doesn’t need you in her life.”

Keith resisted the urge to scream at him that he barely even tolerated her but he refrained, having been way too exhausted to have another heated argument with Lance. So he simply laid his head against the back of the cockpit, nodded in acknowledgement and closed his eyes. Lance met his gaze and nodded in turn, satisfied enough.


	15. Purple Darth Vader Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Voltron faces Sendak head on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! I’ve been dealing with a lot and it’s been really hard to write but I finally got this chapter out and I think you’ll really like it.

Lucy knew the attack was far from over, even though her friends were noticeably exhausted and wary from their first battle with the empire.

Keith seemed the most at ease, like battle brought out a calmer side to him and put him at ease more than anything else. She took the time he wasn’t glaring at her to watch him, his umber eyes and lithe figure, the thick strands of black hair that fell into his face and the high cheekbones concealing the dark shadows upon his otherwise inhuman pale skin. He was the dark prince from her wildest dreams. He was the ambiguous mixture of dark and light, the villain and the hero, light and cold. So much hid behind his dark eyes, a pain that he did everything in his power to conceal.

There was an invisible thread binding her and Keith, an inexplicable pull of his gravity to hers, forcing him into her orbit or her into his. She didn’t understand it, and some small part of Lucy theorized that maybe he didn’t understand it either.

He had called her Allura. The Altean princess.

Who was Allura really? What did she mean to Keith?

Lucy didn’t understand, but she wanted, needed to know. He may have been an ass, but he had to have been an ass for a reason. This reason, Lucy was almost desperate to find out, if not for the sake and sanity of her friends but for him as well.

She promptly avoided her gaze for now, pressing the button for what she hoped was the particle barrier thingy Keith had told her about. The rush of relief when the shimmer of blue came up around the castle was amazing in itself. Lucy even let out a small chuckle despite herself.

“We can open up the black lion now,” came a familiar voice from behind her. “We have all the lions.” Lucy turned around to face him, her heart fluttering in the most unprofessional way when his dark eyes flicked up to meet her own.

She masked her discomfort with stoicism, and merely nodded in reply, making sure to meet his eyes. She wasn’t entirely sure, but it appeared as if something akin to pain flickered in his eyes before he turned from her, making Lucy doubt she had seen it in the first place. She thought of the first time she had seen Keith, the blatant emotion, the lack of an armor, as if he had been stripped of his tough boy facade and left with only a boy, as emotional and human as any of them. Lucy thought again of the name he had uttered.

Allura.

“Keith!”

He turned around again, face expecting. Lucy felt herself go pale. She really hadn’t thought this through, and now it was as if she was basically drowning in possible responses. _Should I ask him about Allura?_ Lucy’s blood ran cold at the thought. Keith was still looking at her questioningly, expecting her to say something. “Was there something I can help you with…?” It ended pointedly, on a question.

Lucy felt her mouth open, then close again. She saw Keith’s growing impatience and the words came out before she could stop them. “Who was Allura? Who was she to you?”

Keith looked as if he had seen a ghost, but he did not respond. His mouth fell, and Lucy immediately felt the guilt settle in. The black paladin quickly regained his composure and his face turned to stone, eyes cold obsidian. Lucy found herself taking an involuntary step back, a chill as cold as Keith’s eyes taking root at the base of her spine and spreading like frost up her body. Keith opened his mouth to reply, seemed to think better of it, shut it and whirled on his heel, going back to where the rest of the team looked on in inquisition. Hunk in concern, Pidge in pity and Lance in an inexplicable fury.

Lucy offered them a shaky smile as she followed Keith back, not entirely over the icy glare of utmost loathing he had shot her way. He didn’t look at her again. Lucy thought that maybe that was a good thing. She tried to ease the evident tension between the others with a small ineffective smile. “So,” Lucy clasped her hands together. “What are we going to do next? It’s not… over. Sendak is still circling Arus.” She pointed to the window, and as if on cue, the purple Galra ship stalked past, eliciting a wave of cold to run through Lucy. She took a deep breath. _It’s for you, it’s for your family, it’s for who you are._

“We have to get the Black Lion before we do anything,” Keith replied, a steadfast look in his hard eyes. “We have all four lions, it should work.”

Lucy nodded her assent. “Alright,” she said. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Keith nodded at her, seemingly pleased with her response. “Look for the lions on the controls,” he said. “Just the presence of the other four lions should be enough to unlock it.”

Lance scoffed. “And what if it doesn’t?”

Keith glared at him. “It will.”

Hunk looked nervous. “Yeah, uh, I’m kinda with Lance here,” The large man twiddled his thumbs, wringing his hands anxiously. “What if it doesn’t work?”

“It’ll work, Hunk,” Lucy replied with a smile to Keith. One that he didn’t acknowledge. “You have to believe in Voltron and in Keith.”

Hunk nodded uneasily but he took a step back. Lance looked more murderous than usual, crossing his arms petulantly and sending a seething glare to Keith, who pointedly ignored it, motioning for the team to follow him to wherever the Black Lion was being held.

“It hasn’t been active in a near twelve years,” he said. “I’m not sure how this is going to go.”

“Oh greeeeat,” Lance drawled. “This sounds promising.”

Lucy punched him in the shoulder. “Lance, please. There’s no need.”

Lance grumbled obscenities under his breath, but he said nothing else to Keith. Lucy was grateful for that.

The Black Lion’s hangar, or what Lucy could see of the outside, was as majestic as it was large. It was obviously made for a larger lion, for Blue’s hangar door looked pitifully small in comparison to this one. And still, Keith strode up to the door like he belonged there, looking up at the Lion symbol as a challenge, one that he could easily pass. And still… there was something there. Something in him that was so undeniably familiar. It was as if there was a block in her mind, like she had seen him somewhere before but couldn’t place his face…

_Flash!  
_

_A boy, eyes dark like onyx stone, but soft like the fur of a sweet cat. Hair that swept his shoulders and hid his eyes. A hand reaching to her, muttering a name that she couldn’t hear.  
_

_Flash!  
_

_Different eyes, glassy and lifeless like the dead. A white streak running through black hair. A cackle, promising insanity and death.  
_

_Flash!  
_

_“Be careful, Keith. If I don’t make it… remember that I’m sorry for dragging you into this, and that you were my very best friend.”_

“Lucy?”

She opened her eyes to see Lance, just barely holding her up, his hands on her shoulders. Hunk and Katie were besides her too, twin looks of panic and concern etched into their expressions. Keith stood by an unresponsive Black Lion, his face irritated and his arms crossed. An understanding passed Lucy from Keith.

“Keith!” She pushed Lance off of her, going immediately to their leader, who eyed her with barely contained fury and an exhaustion that she was oh-so familiar with. He started in the opposite direction, quickening his pace to a run when he realized she was following him.

“Keith! Keith, wait! Please!”

He whirled on her when they were far enough away from the others, and Lucy was struck by the blatant anger simmering in his eyes. Anger that was directed at her. “Can’t you leave me alone for a second?” He snarled at her. “Why can’t you see that I actually don’t like you in the _slightest_?!”

She was stunned into silence. Lucy had assumed he didn’t like her, but hearing it directly was a striking blow to the heart. What came out of her mouth was not at all her, and she hated herself for it, wishing she had the will to be stronger.

“...Keith.”

If he noticed her plight, he didn’t say anything, merely taking a seat on the steps. With a start, Lucy realized that he had taken them to the old, dusty ballroom, with the crystal chandeliers and the antique carpeting. Keith put his head in his chin, staring blatantly at the floor. “The Black Lion was supposed to respond to me,” he said after a moment. “You had me so convinced, too. You and all your necklace mumbo-jumbo and your crap about saving the damn universe.”

Lucy bit back a nasty retort, knowing that it wouldn’t much help the progression of the best conversation that she and Keith had ever kept. “It did choose you,” she replied. “The necklace isn’t wrong. It can’t be.”

“Well, the Black Lion isn’t waking up. I told you, Lucy, I’m not a leader.”

She looked at him. “Maybe not right now,” she said. “But you will be. A great leader. And then, the Black Lion will have to choose you. You’ll be her _paladin_.”

He looked back at her, the way his dark eyes penetrated her causing Lucy’s heart to flutter in the most unprofessional way. “Why do you think that?”

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “I just happen to know things.”

“Like a psychic?” Keith scrunched his nose.

“Yeah,” she teased. “Like a psychic. I can read your mind.”

Keith looked dumbfounded. He opened his mouth to reply, but then closed his mouth again. His head tilted. “What are we going to do? We can’t beat Sendak without Voltron.”

“Yes we can,” Lucy said, standing up. She offered Keith her hand. “We can and we will.”

Keith looked at her in the most unusual way, as if he had never before seen her. His armor was all of a sudden stripped from him, leaving behind a raw vulnerability that was somehow so intimate and so passionate. Lucy blushed at the intensity, and took a sudden interest in the floor.

“What?” She muttered. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

Keith blinked, shaking his head. His forehead scrunched together, as if he had just come out of a dream, and his eyes were once again inscrutable black. “Nothing,” he looked at Lucy again. “You just… remind me of someone I knew once.”

“Is that a good or a bad thing?”

Keith shook his head again, keeping his eyes locked onto her. “I… don’t know yet.” He replied.

* * *

They met the rest of the team in the control room, quickening their pace to a sprint when the castle alarms began to blare, the emergency lights drowning the castle in a crimson red.

“Shit!” Lucy swore under her breath, running to the control panels to shut the alarms off and to see what had caused them.

Keith was in full defensive mode, his face hard and stance battle ready. He looked coiled and ready to kill.

On the other hand, Hunk looked as if he was about to vomit. “Lucy…” he whined. “What’s going on??”

Lucy looked up from the controls. “Darth Vader is here, Luke,” she replied sullenly. “May the Force be with us all.”

Lance snorted. Katie chucked despite herself, Keith looked at Lucy as if she had lost her mind and Hunk ran quickly to the corner, projectile vomiting in what Lucy hoped was a garbage can. They all winced. Katie rolled her eyes. “I’m just surprised it took this long.”

Lucy looked at Keith despite her better judgement, only to discover that he was looking at her too. “We need Voltron,” she whispered, trying and failing to keep the fear out of her voice.

Pain and self-loathing rippled across his face in reply, but he nodded. “I know,” he said to Lucy. To everyone, he said: “Everyone, get to your lions! We can distract the fleet while we can come up with a better plan. I know we need Voltron right now, but this is the best we can do.”

Everyone stared at him.

Keith snarled in impatience. “Go! Now!”

* * *

“ _Keith, do you have any clue how we’re going to beat these dudes?!_ ” Hunk cried from his lion.

“ _Just keep distracting him_ ,” Keith replied from the Altean castle. ” _I’ll cover you with the castle’s defenses_.”

“ _Wow_ ,” Lance said sarcastically. “ _Great leadership. Is there anything else you can’t do?”_

“Lance, be quiet!” Lucy scolded as she fired a laser into one of the fighter jets, sending it spiraling out of the sky. “You leave him alone!”

She heard Lance scoff over the comm, but he said nothing else.

For what seemed like the longest time, Lucy and her team zoomed about on their lions, knocking down fighters and creating small dents in Sendak’s ship. All throughout the seemingly pointless battle, Lucy could feel Blue becoming more and more anxious, could see the other lions struggling with their own burdens. Their movements got more and more antsy, more and more flighty. Lucy shook her head and sent out a transmission to Keith. “Keith! What’s going on?!”

Silence.

Her heart dropped.

“Keith! Keith, where are you?!”

Nothing.

“Keith!!” Lucy swore under her breath when the third attempt to contact him went awry, and in a moment of impulse, she reversed her course.

“ _Lucy, what are you doing?!”  
_

_“Where are you going?!”  
_

_“Luce?!_ ”

“Keith isn’t responding,” she replied. “Keep them busy. I know you can.”

The flurry of protests that came after her response was deafening, like a horde of bugs around her head. In one fluid movement, Lucy shut off the comm, and the cockpit went silent. She put Blue in full throttle, her pulse quickening when she saw her friends fighting with renewed vigor to keep Sendak at bay.

When she touched down, there wasn’t any time to lose. Lucy ran as fast as she possibly could into the castle, calling out Keith’s name until her voice went hoarse. She pushed back the odd sense of deja vu she kept receiving as she ventured the twists and turns of the hallways, keeping in mind that Keith’s well being was more important at the moment.

She finally found him at the Black Lion’s hangar, his back facing her. His shoulders were slumped, hair mussed from repeated runnings through it. Lucy knew that if he turned around, his eyes would be chaotic, wild, unstable. What was even more concerning was the fact that Lucy knew this for sure. As if by some uncanny way, she knew him.

“Keith.” Her voice came out as vulnerable as he looked, and for a moment, she hated it.

He appeared to relax, then stiffened again, his hands at his side clenching into fists. He made no other move acknowledging that he heard her, not even giving her the satisfaction of turning around. There was a part of Lucy who knew she should have been angry, but amazingly, there was none present. She merely sighed, and called his name again.

“Keith. Keith, people are _dying_.”

He stiffened. Lucy tried again.

“Keith. Keith, _please_ listen to me. Our friends are out there risking their _lives_ for us, and you–“

He whirled on her then, black eyes flashing with chaotic energy, like the outside walls of a category five hurricane. Lucy gasped instinctively, taking two steps back as to relieve herself of his wrath. “They aren’t _my_ friends,” he hissed. “They’re yours. And I wouldn’t be in this mess if _you_ hadn’t come into space in the first place.”

Now Lucy was mad. “Ex _cuse_ me?! You have the _audacity_ to lecture me now?! My friends are risking _everything_ for us. Everything for the universe! And you’re in here pouting like a _child_ because the Black Lion won’t respond to you!”

“ _I’m_ a child?! _Me_?! You’re the one so blatantly naïve to think that I can be the leader of Voltron! The most fucking powerful weapon in the known universe!”

“I am _not_ a child!”

“Yes you are, Lucy. You bring these humans up here to fight when they have no idea how to do so!”

“Don’t you _dare_ complain! You weren’t going to do anything anyways! While we’re arguing here, there’s a battle going on and you are too much of a coward to fight!”

“I do what I do for a reason.”

“ _What reason?!_ ” Lucy cried. “What the _hell_ do you plan on doing?! How is this helping us?! How the _fuck_ is running away going to help us?!”

“I’M TRYING TO _PROTECT_ YOU, ALLURA!!”

Silence. Keith’s eyes flashed in pain. Lucy let out a surprised breath. She swallowed carefully, trying to plan out what to say next. “Keith?”

He didn’t look at her.

“Keith.”

She crept over to him carefully, placing a tentative hand on his shoulder. He looked at her then, his eyes like a thousand shards of shattered glass, broken beyond repair. Lucy realized then that they won’t black at all. Rather, a dark, dark blue that appeared almost purple at this distance. Beautiful.

“Keith. You must accept this. Only then will the Black Lion truly accept you as it’s paladin.”

”I’m… scared,” he admitted, eyes already broken into shards seeming to break further. Lucy felt her own soften, an instinctive reaction when in the presence of one Mr. Keith Kogane. “I’ve never been a leader in my life.”

“Keith.” He looked at her again. “I believe in you.”

His eyes seemed to light up with the fervid energy of a thousand suns, blazing at her praise. Lucy felt some of that heat enter her, beginning at the hand that held his shoulder and spreading to the entirety of her body.

When he smiled, it was truly dazzling. Lucy knew that she had never before seen a sight so entirely breathtaking. “Let’s go form Voltron.”

* * *

As predicted, the Black Lion accepted Keith with open arms, and together, Blue and Black entered the fray, much to the palpable surprise of their teammates and their enemy.

“ _Keith?! You did it!_ ”

Lucy smiled. “He did, Kate,” she affirmed. “He just needed a little push. Keith?” She felt the Black Lion’s head swivel to her, and with it, the piercing gaze of its paladin. “What should we do?”

The response was cliché and oh-so expected. But it worked for Keith, who was so entirely new to being the black paladin. And when wasn’t Lucy’s life some giant movie cliché?

“ _Form Voltron!_ ”

And they did.

It was amazing.

Voltron was the equivalent of a thousand armies, the power held in its hands was unimaginable. A hundred suns seemed to run unbidden through its veins, unspeakable power and control present in one being. Almost ungodly.

Almost.

Lucy was simply a tool for the thing to use, one out of five for Voltron to pull from. Its powers intensified as the bond between the five paladins grew stronger. Lucy could feel everything: Lance’s joy, Hunk’s amazement, Katie’s complete and utter worship and Keith’s surprise.

Together, as one, they were unstoppable, and the tides of the battle had turned.

With one swipe of its hand, Voltron sliced through the entirety of the Galra fleet.

Just for a second, Lucy could have sworn she felt Sendak’s fear, through Blue. It was unadulterated and piercing, laced with a bitter elation from Blue’s side of the bond. And just like that, Voltron collapsed, the power draining from it like blood from a body as it took its last breath.

The lions seemed to be overjoyed, humming their adrenaline and elation at seeing Voltron back together and seeing the first of the Galra fleets crumble into nothing.

Lucy was the first to exit her lion, one word in her mind. Nothing else existed, nothing else mattered. They had the most powerful weapon in the universe, the most amazing thing, a machine powerhouse, a hyper beam, a gift.

Voltron.

Her friends came out soon after, expressions of similar astonishment gracing their features. Laughter filled the air for the first time in what seemed to be twelve years, as the paladins of new faced their first victory. Lance found Lucy as soon as he could, throwing his arms around her and conforming her body to his lithe figure. She could hear him muttering something, only to realize that it was her name. Just her name over and over again.

They came one by one to join the group hug. First Katie, seemingly crying her utter joy at seeing her friends alive and mostly unharmed, then Hunk with his boisterous attitude and his personality capable of filling a room.

Lucy only noticed Keith through the chaos, his face expressionless and… eyes looking in the opposite direction. As if… there were something else there. Lucy’s blood ran cold. Something was wrong.

“Sorry to interrupt your group hug,” a chilling voice drawled from behind. “But I’m not dead. Not yet.”

* * *

He bore the appearance of a much larger figure, his bionic eye and large mechanical arm capable of crushing skulls and hearts alike. Keith had seen Sendak before, had heard his reputation. Zarkon very much liked him, as much as Zarkon could like anything, for the commander was as ruthless as he was cunning. And he was very, very cunning.

Keith barely had time to blink before the Galra commander was upon his team, his massive arm seizing the tiny Pidge and throwing her like she weighed practically nothing, into the wall of the castle.

All went to hell after that.

Lucy, bless her heart for trying, let a ferocious cry of rage bubble past her lips before she single handedly charged the commander, her silver hair billowing past her like a flag of war. Sendak flicked her off like she was a mere rag doll, taking hold of her hair and slamming her against the castle wall. Keith saw him say something to her, saw Lucy’s eyes widen before she struggled mercilessly in his unyielding grip.

Next was Lance, wielding his gun expertly and holding the barrel against Sendak’s head. Before he could get a chance to fire, Sendak’s robotic hand dropped from Lucy’s neck to land a solid punch to Lance’s face, crumbling him to the ground besides Lucy. Hunk went to comfort them, not knowing what else to do, cradling Lucy’s head in his hands.

This left Keith, and judging by the look Sendak gave him, the commander knew exactly what that meant.

The fight came about full circle.

His hand ignited with a soft purple light and Keith’s blade extended to its full potential. Then they began. Sendak started in the offense, attempting to land a swift punch to Keith who nimbly sidestepped. Keith parried another swift blow with his blade, using his light weight to his advantage to get under Sendak and avoid his wide strikes. As the battle continued, the two opponents seemed to fall under a standstill. Sendak with his crushing blows and his large offensive maneuvers. Keith with his lithe arabesque and defensive techniques. It became almost like a dance the way their weapons curled around them, a dance that Keith was familiar with.

This would not do.

He struck at Sendak’s face, eliciting a pleased sort of surprise for changing the game a little. Sendak’s lips pulled back into a ferocious grin, something akin to respect gracing his movements. Keith felt nothing but the adrenaline of battle and the bitter rage swirling in his stomach for his newfound friends.

“I’m impressed, _little one._ ” He snarled, using Haggar’s old nickname to rouse him. “You're fighting prowess has improved since I’ve seen you last.”

Keith let out an inhuman cry of fury, doubling his attempts to beat the commander.

The commander chuckled. “You’re just like Shiro was,” he said. “Filled with rage and an urge to protect your helpless friends.”

Keith cast a glance to them. Lance was knocked unconscious, a purplish bruise surfacing on his eye. Pidge’s eyelashes were fluttering, freckles stark against her pale skin. But she was still out. Hunk looked at him wearily, the compassionate man frightened for his friends. And Lucy… Lucy was awake, her mahogany skin paler than he had ever seen it. Large blue eyes so much like _hers_ stared at him, her gaze incomprehensible. Sendak laughed.

“They won’t ever defeat him, you know. They can’t. He’s too strong.”

Keith kicked at him, but to no avail. Sendak’s large arm knocked it away, seizing his ankle. Keith’s eyes widened as he lost control, his blade slipping out of his grasp. Desperately, he grabbed for it to no avail, Sendak’s fist closing around his neck. Keith struggled mercilessly against the Galra soldier, vision fading, fading, fading; hearing going away, and just when he thought he was done for…

Snap! The fist released and Keith crumpled to the floor in a gasping heap. He grabbed his sword just as Hunk fell to the ground and Sendak turned around to face him again, face contorted in anger at nearly being defeated.

“You know,” Sendak drawled as he stalked closer. “I never understood you, Keith. You, a human, fighting for _her_. Best friends with the Altean Princess. Her family is _dead_. Her legacy is _dead_. And she… she is also dead.”

Keith whirled on him in newfound rage. No one talked about Allura like that. No one spoke of her family like that. No one spoke of her like that. He landed a brutal swipe across his face, eliciting a cry of pain from the behemoth. “Don’t talk about her that way.” he spat.

If Sendak was about to say something, he wouldn’t get it out, for he was intercepted by a silver haired spitfire who dug her bubblegum pink nails into Sendak, whose eyes widened in surprise.

“Lucy!” Keith cried.

She looked at him briefly, her crystal blue eyes widening as Sendak took hold of her again, throwing her mercilessly into the wall. Rage, unlike any other, passed over the black paladin as he saw his–god damnit–his _friend_ treated like she was nothing more than a worthless being. For the briefest moment, Keith saw red, and this was what drove him to his eventual victory.

With a swift kick to the abdomen, Sendak went down, like Lance had, his red eye gleaming with hatred and malice. Keith sent a quick punch to Sendak’s face, in response to what he had done to Lance, and then repeated it again and again and again.

“Keith!”

He only stopped when he heard Lucy’s voice clear and capable, call his name.

When Keith looked back at the commander, the sole survivor of his once unconquerable army, he saw only fright. Where there was once teasing, defiance and malice there was now only fright. A boy scared to die.

“Please,” the commander wheezed. “Don’t kill me… I can… I can tell you where she is.”

Keith’s eyes narrowed. “Who?”

Sendak breathed heavily, his yellow eye covered by bruises and swollen purple skin. He looked like a defeated behemoth. “A– _Allura_ ,” he choked out. “She’s not… she’s not dead. She’s alive.”

Keith’s heart stopped. _She’s alive?_

Sendak seemed to see Keith’s hesitation, and used it to his advantage. “I can bring you to her,” he told Keith. “I can–“

Keith’s face contorted in pain.

_She’s alive. But…_

He looked to his friends, broken and bruised on the grass, their blood littering the ground. He looked to Sendak, the perpetrator.

_He couldn’t live…  
_

_But she’s alive.  
_

_But he needs to die._

And he made his decision.

“You’re _lying_ ,” Keith snarled.

“ _No_!”

His sword penetrated the armor, and with a soft squelching sound, the Galra soldier fell entirely. With a heavy heart, Keith removed his sword, and the yellow eye of the commander glossed over.

Sendak was dead.


	16. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team recovers from their first battle.

For the longest time the single soldier stood there amidst the carnage, the billowing smoke and the carcass before him, red mechanical eye now a dull black. A slight slight part of him realized dully that his paladin armor was splattered with the crimson blood of his attacker, but the other, larger part of his mind was reeling. Everything was silent but the tempest raging in Keith’s mind.

_She’s alive. Allura’s alive._

He barely felt it when an arm snaked around his shoulders, and a subsequent pull from the arm tugged him slowly but surely in the direction of the Altean castle.

_She’s alive. Allura’s alive._

He could just barely make out a voice, calm and soothing, muttering unintelligible things to him, and then to what Keith presumed was the rest of his team. He could just barely make out the faces surrounding him, pale, wide and concerned, like damned specters fluttering around him. Keith might have said something, he might have not said something, but the next thing he knew, everything dulled and dulled further until everything finally faded to black.

Numbness crept up his body, starting from his feet and sneaking stealthily up his legs, his torso and to his head.

Black.

Nothing.

Gone.

* * *

His ears woke first, a monotonous hum of some sort invading his eardrums and quickly becoming annoying. Keith tried to instinctively swat it away with his hand, but was surprised to find that his hand wasn’t obeying the simple command.

Innocent surprise turned quickly to panic when Keith realized that he really couldn't move at all. His eyes, behind the closed eyelids, flitted back and forth nervously, making the eyelids over them flutter. In a panic, Keith tried to move his hand again. Almost. It twitched.

“Lucy, look! He’s waking up?”

_Who the fuck is Lucy?_

As the name passed through his mind, the image that he had always associated with the name: a tall woman with mahogany skin, platinum hair and eyes exactly like _hers_ came to the forefront of his mind.

_Oh. Lucy. Right._

He tried to move his hand again. Another twitch. Oh great. Just fantastic.

“Katie, can you go get Hunk, please? He made some soup especially for him.”

That sounded like Lucy. He remembered her now. He remembered her damned stubborn persistence to annoy him, the irritable way she weaved her way into his life, her nearly useless friends. And some of the good things; her impulsiveness that quite nearly rivaled his own, her smarminess and silver tongue and of course, the admirably tenancy to fiercely protect her loved ones.

Yes. He remembered Lucy.

“Keith? Keith, can you hear me?”

_Yeah I can hear you_ , was what was supposed to come out, but Keith feared all that Lucy heard was a garbled murmur. She didn’t respond, but Keith had the inexplicable feeling she was still there. His eyelids seemed to be glued shut. Damn, this was frustrating!

“Keith? Keith, can you open your eyes?”

Damn this woman! Just another thing he remembered. Lucy’s impatience. He struggled to open his eyes, meeting slightly less resistance than before. This was promising. All he had to do was keep trying and… yes! His eyelids peeled open, feeling like they had been taped, only to land on the girl standing before him. 

Lucy seemed pleased, for her lips parted in a dazzling smile at the sight. Keith reached instinctively to her, only to be startled by a sharp thud, and the subsequent discovery of a barrier between the two of them. He was in a healing pod. Figured.

Awareness flickered in Lucy’s eyes, and she graciously unlatched the healing pod, causing Keith to come tumbling into her arms with a jolt of discomfort. Silence descended for a brief instance and eyes locked before Keith before he removed himself as if her touch burned him. Red blossomed on her cheeks, her eyes shifting to the floor. They didn’t speak for a minute.

“You’re healed, it seems,” Lucy told him with an awkward smile. “I have to say, I wasn’t sure these pods would work.” As if proving her point, her gaze searched him, potentially for injuries. Keith felt as if she were tearing him apart piece by piece, removing layer upon layer of his defenses until he lay bare before her. He wondered when she had managed to worm her way under his skin. He wondered when exactly he had allowed her to. This, of course, went over Lucy’s head entirely, for she merely stared at him questioningly, looking at him for some kind of answer to her previous question.

He dipped his head in a small nod not trusting himself to speak. Lucy’s eyes flickered with concern and she opened her mouth to speak again.

Fortunately, Pidge entered the room before Lucy had the opportunity, a dazzling smile on her face and a bowl of steaming liquid in her hands. Keith tried not to look at Lucy, but he felt the relief rolling off her in waves.

Pidge didn’t seem to notice anything, placing the bowl of soup right into Keith’s hand. “Here ya go,” she said. “Hunk made it special. He told me like five times that this soup was made from ingredients worthy of his restaurant.” Pidge shrugged a shoulder. “I dunno, though. Guess you get to try it out.”

He did. Hm. Tasted like some kind of herb. Tangy and somewhat spicy but not bad. Keith hummed his approval, and Pidge grinned.

“Good to know Hunk has your support. He’s gonna be ecstatic.”

Lucy laughed. “He should cook for us more often,” she said. “I’m eager to see what he can do in the kitchen.”

Keith looked at her briefly, locking their gazes. For a moment, her eyes softened, as if she could tell exactly what he was thinking. Besides her, Lance and Hunk came loping in, Hunk lifting Pidge and placing her onto his shoulders and Lance chittering happily about their fight and how well they worked together. Pidge replied with a snarky remark about Hunk’s gargantuan size and a small genuine smile. Lance swiped a sly finger across the pad of Pidge’s foot and she broke out into peals of unbidden laughter, pulling her foot away and fighting back more attempted tickle assaults.

Keith watched all of this with what could only be described as uncertainty. A hand clapped on his shoulder, and Keith found himself facing Lucy and her unwavering crystal blue eyes.

She smiled knowingly. “Walk with me?”

* * *

Lucy brought him with her into the hallway, dutifully ignoring the sudden confused silence behind them at their sudden departure. She wasn’t surprised when he didn’t grab her hand, not that she was offended or disappointed. No of course not, but she was a bit shocked when she felt him shift slightly closer to her as they walked in silence, their hands unknowingly separated by a mere breadth of a hair. Lucy looked at him, locking her gaze with his for an instant before he quickly looked away, shuffling a noticeable distance away from her and mumbling a soft, ‘sorry’ as he did so. Lucy shook her head.

Surprisingly enough, Keith broke the silence. “Why’d you pull me outta there?”

Lucy shrugged. “I wanted to speak with you.”

Keith scoffed, the brief moment of vulnerability over. “Well yeah. I figured as much. But what about?”

Lucy shrugged again. “I’m not sure.”

Keith snorted.

“I’m not sure because I wanted to let you speak. About...whatever you wanted.”

He looked at her. She smiled sheepishly, fiddling with the zipper on her jacket.

“You seemed a bit upset.” She amended.

Keith snorted again, shooting her one of his trademark ‘seriously?’ glances. Lucy shrugged in return. Keith looked at the floor, then looked to her again, his gaze inscrutable. Lucy let out a surprised gasp when she felt his fingers intertwine with her own, beginning to pull her in a completely different direction. “Okay,” Keith said, averting her gaze. “I guess I’ll talk to you. But I need to show you something first.”

He glanced at her again, his eyes questioning, asking if he could trust her. Lucy was oddly touched that the stoic leader was offering her his beloved trust, and so she managed a brief nod. “Okay.”

And maybe, just maybe, her voice was a little bit shaky as well. Not that she would ever admit that to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So so so sorry for the hiatus and the length of this chapter. I just wanted to get something out there to maintain your interest, if you’re still interested (I wouldn’t blame you if you’re not cause my lack of writing has been beyond cruel). I will try to update more frequently but they may not be as frequent as they used to be. I’ve been dealing with a lot of stuff in my personal life and am getting over that.


	17. Once Upon a December

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lucy have a heart to heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I DID IT!!!! I promise I am not abandoning this story, I just need some motivation to work on it and it’s been hard because Voltron hasn’t been on. I hope you enjoy this chapter! Hope it’s worth the wait!

They walked perhaps knowingly, perhaps unknowingly, separated by the thin thread of a hair, their hands centimeters apart but never quite touching. Lucy walked cautiously at his side, not wanting to ruin the fragile peace that seemed to exist between them for now.

Occasionally, Keith would wander into her, bumping awkwardly, and he would apologize with an embarrassed ‘sorry’.

Lucy liked this side of him; the kind, anxious side. The side of him that was awkward, embarrassed, meek. The side of him that was so very different than the stoic man with the stern black eyes and reflexes better than Lucy had ever seen.

She liked the side of Keith that was human.

After awhile, Lucy, being the conversationalist, became uncomfortable with the steady silence that accompanied their walk. She laced her hands behind her head, watching with indolence as the ceiling panels passed her by. Lucy rolled her eyes, glaring at Keith in frustration.

“What did you want to show me?” She asked impatiently.

Surprisingly, Keith chuckled. “It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you.” He answered.

Lucy huffed in annoyance. “I hate surprises.” She said.

Keith looked at her out the corner of his eye, like she was some kind of amusing little child. “Seriously? How can you hate surprises?”

She looked at him in disbelief. “How can you like surprises?”

“I asked you first.”

“That’s a dumb response.”

Keith shrugged. Lucy crossed her arms, avoiding his piercing, expectant gaze. She bit her lip, shook her head and tightened her arms across her chest. A nostalgic and sad sigh escaped from her lips, and she finally turned to face Keith, whose dark eyes were watchful, yet not suspicious. Interested.

“I don’t like surprises,” Lucy began tentatively. “Because of what I went through. I don’t like surprises… because the last time I was surprised I woke up, not knowing who I was. Not having a single memory from my life. I was lost. You… you don’t know what it’s like,” she said. “Not to know who you are. Not to know what happened to reduce you to this pitiful state of not remembering. I don’t remember anything. It’s so, so frustrating, Keith. Not to know anything. Not to know what you were like before… before you forgot everything. Having to reinvent yourself, take another name, make new friends when you don’t even know what your life was like before…”

Keith looked at her. Long and hard. He paused for a moment before speaking up. “I like the name Lucy,” he said with a small but genuine smile. “It suits you.”

Lucy smiled back, oddly touched. Keith had stopped when she did, a touch of concern on his handsome face. He extended his hand out to Lucy, and after a second’s worth of hesitation, she took it.

* * *

They walked hand and hand through the many twists and turns of the castle, Keith spinning stories of his childhood. The time when he first met the Altean princess, and she had caught him stealing an apple. The time when the two of them traipsed through the town of Altea, playing a game called ‘tag’ for four vargas straight (Keith told her it was similar to Earth hours). The time when Keith had gotten hit by a giant rock falling from the sky in one of Altea’s freak weather storms and a sobbing Allura had to bring him back to Shiro’s for help.

“I feel like I’d remember rock showers,” Lucy laughed. “It’s just too weird.”

“Oh yeah,” Keith chuckled. “They were weird alright. Allura loved them though,” he sighed, a deep, thoughtful gaze smoldering in his umber eyes.

Lucy smiled in understanding, taking a sudden interest in the floor before she asked her next question. “You loved her, didn’t you?” Lucy asked tentatively.

Keith sighed a great sigh. “Yeah I guess so,” he said. “She was my best friend. My only friend.”

“And if Sendak was telling the truth, then she’s still alive somewhere.”

“I’m not gonna take his word for it,” Keith said. “Galras that blindly follow Zarkon are liars, they’d do anything to spare their life.”

“But–“

“No, Lucy. Drop it. I’m not gonna stop this mission based of a Galra soldier’s testament. It’s not how the world works.”

“But if you loved her…”

“Love is a weakness, Lucy,” Keith said, his eyes unyielding obsidian stone. “If you had grown up in a war zone like I had, you’d know.”

“I’m sorry,” Lucy said, unable to come up with another response.

Keith shook his head, still not looking at her. “Don’t be,” he said tersely. “I know who I am, what I’m supposed to do. If I were given the choice to live the life of an Earthling or stick with my life, I’d still choose this. I am a warrior and I take pride in it. Things like love don’t belong in a warrior’s life.”

Lucy exhaled. Opened her mouth to speak.

“We’re here.” Keith said suddenly, grasping a particularly large mural and removing it from the wall. A door, blue and pink adornments covering the sides, stood before her, the familiar sense of deja-vu coming over Lucy again.

She tilted her head. “Wha…? What is this?”

Keith’s expression was grave. “This is… was… Allura’s room,” he said, putting his palm to the door. “I figured since you wanted to know so much about her that I should at least show you her room.” Lucy watched wide eyed as the area under his hand lit up with a blue glow, and the door opened with a hiss.

Keith stepped aside, his dark eyes patient and watchful as she carefully and slowly made her way into the princess’ room. The sight was so unbearably sad. A bed, like a monstrous shape, sat placidly in the corner of the room, its sheets waving lightly as if they sensed her presence. Atop the bed sat a small dust covered bear, a pink bow tied neatly around its neck. Lucy touched its fur, its glassy eyes following her sadly as she wandered around the room, taking in the many child’s drawings of a dead world. A small girl with silvery hair, blue eyes and a floofy dress, holding hands with a dark haired boy with black button eyes and another taller figure with a spatter of white in his hair and a scar across his nose. Lucy traced the lettering at the bottom, not recognizing the language.

“‘Best Friends Forever’”, Keith spoke up from behind her. He looked every bit the part of The Phantom of The Opera with his mop of black hair, his pale skin, dark clothing and so very dark eyes that held so much pain. Keith was looking at her, as if he had expected this reaction from her, and was reliving the times of his past. “That’s what the letters say. It’s Altean. Here,” Keith seemed to glide towards her like a shadow incarnate. His long finger pointed to the man with the white hair. “That’s Shiro.”

“Your guardian.”

“Yeah,” he affirmed, moving the finger over to the girl. “This is Allura. And this,” he shifted the finger over to the boy with the button eyes. “Is yours truly.”

Lucy laughed. “Well she certainly captured your pale skin,” she joked. Keith rolled his eyes. “And your mop of a hair. So you did always have a mullet then?”

Keith turned red. “It’s not a– holy shit, never mind. Yes, I’ve always had my hair like this.”

“Well, that’s unfortunate.”

“What’s wrong with my hair?”

“Seriously? It’s so… 80’s…”

“What?”

“Never mind.”

Silence descended for a brief period, both people oddly comfortable in the other’s presence. Keith sat down on the bed, making it scream under the weight of him. He let out a sigh. “What’s wrong?” Lucy asked him.

He grew distant. “I just miss them is all,” he answered. “Being in her room brings back a lot of memories.”

Lucy’s hand fell on an odd object, her fingers clasping around it involuntarily. “Well of course,” she said. “You loved them.”

“I did,” Keith said. “I did love them.”

Lucy clasped the small object in her hands, coming to sit down next to Keith on the bed. The bed groaned in protest but the two teenagers didn’t pay any mind to it. Lucy opened her hands, revealing a small golden jewelry box, a dancer smiling up at her on the top of it. “I found a jewelry box,” Lucy said with a small, sad smile. “It was probably Allura’s.”

Keith took it from her, cradling it gently in his hands. His umber eyes were far, far away, in another galaxy, another dimension, another time completely. A nostalgic smile touched upon his lips. “Yeah it was. It’s a music box.”

Lucy tilted her head. “Are you sure?” She asked him. “It looks like a jewelry box to me.”

In reply, Keith flipped the golden lid to the box, revealing a second dancer inside, and a small melancholy tune that resonated dimly within the small confines of the room. Keith hummed along with the box, and Lucy sang lyrics to go along with it. She followed her heart.

_On the wind,_

_Cross the sea,_

_Hear this song and remember,_

_Soon you’ll be,_

_Home with me_ ,

_Once upon a December…_

“You have a nice voice,” Keith said as the music box concluded its sorrow song. “I used to listen to Allura song sometimes. She was just as good as you.”

Lucy tucked a piece of blonde hair behind her ear. “Thanks,” she said, taking the music box back from Keith and cradling it safely in her hands. “I used to sing that song to help me sleep. It was the only thing that I remember from my past.” A mirthless laugh. “Rae brought me to Earth in December, actually,” she said. “It was where I had my first Christmas.”

Upon seeing Keith’s bewildered expression, Lucy continued. “It’s an Earth holiday in the winter. You see, there was this man, Christ, who people thought was the savior of all humanity. A long time ago, he was born on the date of Christmas. Now people on Earth just eat turkey, give presents and decorate trees in their living rooms.”

“Trees?” Keith echoed numbly. “In the house?”

“Yes, it really is quite silly, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, kinda sounds a bit redundant.”

Lucy scoffed. “No! No it is not redundant at all! Christmas is a wonderful holiday about family and friends and great food! I swear, you would love it if you experienced it. It really is magnificent to see the tree all decorated, presents under it and family with you.”

He went silent for a while. “Earth seems like a weird place.” He said.

“Weird, yes, but also lovely.” Lucy answered. “I am sad you never got to experience any sort of holidays like that. Have you really not been happy all these years?”

“I don’t need happiness,” Keith answered gruffly. “I have my blade and my mission. That’s all I need.”

“You have spent years without love, Keith Kogane,” Lucy said. “It must be tearing you apart.”

“It’s not.” Keith said in a tone that implied she should drop it.

But Lucy didn’t.

“It’s not tearing you apart?” Lucy prodded. “How?! How is it not painful to live your life without love? To live each day blinded and motivated by hatred? Why have you lost the will to try, Keith?”

His eyes flashed. “Because everyone I love _dies_ , Lucy,” he growled, his mouth twisting in a grimace. “Because hatred is the only thing that keeps me going. If I know that one day, that bitch Haggar is gonna die at my hands, then I know that I’ve avenged the only two people who have ever even bothered to give a damn about me.” Keith surged to his feet. “Keep the box,” he said gruffly. “I don’t need the damn thing anyways.”

And with that, he bounded out of the room, turning abruptly on his heel. The music box sat placidly in Lucy’s hands, the drawings on the little deceased princess’ mirror staring accusingly at her.

Lucy called after him until her throat was sore, but she did not go after him.

She knew he needed some time alone. And if he chose to seek her out, then she would welcome him back with open arms. After all, those who lived without love deserved as much as she could give.

Lucy stuffed the music box in her pocket and stared at the wall.


	18. Gold Dust Woman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gold Dust Woman by Fleetwood Mac: https://youtu.be/cMp57bUzOB8
> 
> Because I have an unhealthy obsession with Fleetwood Mac. :)

Lance was slightly relieved when Keith stormed alone back into the common room, his face an angry mask. Hunk and Pidge just kept their eyes skyward, trying not to look at their angst ridden leader, who was somehow infuriatingly hard to read and yet so very emotional. Lance just rolled his eyes instinctively; not really understanding his best friend’s infatuation with him. A part of him thought that it was her fascination with those stupid vampire novels, where the naïve girl fixed the broken boy and they fell irrevocably in love with each other, but he wasn’t so sure. Lance’s thoughts went again to what Lucy had been telling him about the shadow boy from her dreams...

No. There was no way she thought that Keith was this elusive boy that she had created within the depths of her subconscious… did she?

Ugh. What was he thinking? It was _Lucy_. Of _course_ she did.

Keith was looking at him from his oddly relaxed place on the couch. His dark eyebrow was raised. Lance resisted the sudden urge to throttle him. “Something on your mind?” Keith asked innocently.

Lance glowered at him. “Seriously? We’re not friends. You don’t get to ask me about my fucking feelings.”

Keith rolled his eyes, a dark irritated gleam in his eyes. “Fine. I was just asking.”

Lance shook his head, the anger that was always so hard to control around this infuriating boy breaking his fragile composure. “You know what?!” He asked, leaping to his feet. “Fine. You wanna know what’s on my mind!?”

“Lance,” he heard Pidge call out in warning.

“Stay out of this, Katie!” He scowled at her. She didn’t know the half of what he was going through. She hadn’t known Lucy for as long as he had. She didn’t understand the pain of staying by someone’s side, only to be shot down again and again by pure obliviousness. To still love her even after all she put him through by not doing anything at all. Pidge’s face was a shocked white, hurt shining in her eyes. Lance was too angry to apologize. “You wanna know what I’m feeling, Mr. I’m-too-angsty-for-this-universe?” He snarled at a blank faced Keith. “Huh? I wanna know where Lucy is. Because unlike some of us, I actually care about her and her feelings. I care about her, known her my whole life. I know her better than anyone. If you hurt her in any way, I’ll make you sorry. Now, where is she?”

Keith stared at Lance. Lance stared defiantly back. And then, Lance watched as something changed in Keith’s dark, dark eyes. He stepped aside. “She’s upstairs,” he said blandly. “I–“ he didn’t have enough time to finish, for Lance pushed past him with all the force he had, ignoring the shocked silence he had left in his wake.

“Fucking dick,” Lance scoffed.

* * *

He found her in an open room, sitting atop a child’s bed. Her crystal blue eyes were wide and innocent, her small hands clasped in her lap, holding a small object. A jewelry box maybe? Lance fumed at the thought that maybe Keith had given it to her. She was biting her lip in a way that suggested she was trying not to cry and even through his envy, Lance still thought she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He knocked three tentative times on the door, just to get her attention. Lucy looked at him as if she had never seen him before.

“Lance,” she whispered, shocked. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

He smiled at her. “Yeah,” said Lance. “Maybe that should be my new career. Lance McClain: secret ninja spy.”

Lucy laughed at him. He loved it when she laughed.

Lucy scooted over and patted the bed. He sat besides her like they had many times before. Lance and Lucy, two against the world. Lucy ran a hand through her hair, releasing a shaky sigh. She smiled half-heartedly at him. He scoffed playfully at her. “Seriously?” Lance said. “You’re gonna try to fool me? Luce, I know you’re upset and you can’t hide that from me. What happened?”

She sighed again, her eyes going to a faraway place that Lance, try as he may, could never seem to go. “Lance–“

“No, no, no,” said Lance. “No. I know that dickweed hurt you, Lucy. Tell me what’s wrong so I can help you.”

She smiled at him fondly. Lance felt his heart melt despite himself. “You’re always such a good friend to me, Lance,” she said. “Thank you.”

And like that, the moment was broken. By her obliviousness. God he wanted to tell her. So badly he wanted her to know. But how the hell do you tell someone  _Hey, Lucy I’m sorry I hate Keith so much but I’ve loved you for the past ten years and I’m pretty sure you don’t love me back? Isn’t that great??_

 _Nice_ , he thought. _Really captures the “dramatic movie” feel._

So he said nothing, allowing Lucy to place her head on his shoulder, the scent of her strawberry hair ticking his nose. Teasing him like she had his whole life. “I understand you don’t like him,” said Lucy. “You’ve never liked change, really. Even when Katie joined our little family, you didn’t exactly take it as well as I thought you would. But you must understand… he’s broken. I need to help him. There’s something about him that draws me to him, like it’s my duty to help him. He’s so caught up in revenge, anger and hatred that he lashes out at all who try to get to him.”

Lance didn’t really want to hear this, but he kept quiet, for her sake. Always for Lucy.

“There’s something there, Lance. Like I’ve been dreaming my whole life about where I come from and who I was, and suddenly he’s here. He knows more than he says he does, Lance. He’s connected to my past, I just know it.”

“Lucy–“

“Lance–“

“No, just hear me out. I can’t pretend to know how you’re feeling. What you had to go through must have been indescribable. But I do know you. I know how you are. All your life you’ve been living in this fantasy world with your aliens, your dark shadows and memories. People with dark eyes and promises. But… have you ever thought that just… maybe your destiny’s much simpler?” Lucy looked at him. Lance continued. “Ya know, maybe you were brought to Earth for a reason? Maybe you were supposed to stay there. Maybe… maybe this whole life, this… Voltron… all this fighting, it’s not who you’re meant to be?”

Lucy was silent for a moment, once again her head rested comfortably on Lance’s shoulder. “No,” said Lucy. “No, that’s not what I’m meant to do.” Lance’s heart sunk, but he did what he always did, digging his fingers into his thighs and pretending that what she said didn’t hurt him. “I’m supposed to be the blue paladin, and you the red paladin. I met all of you for a reason, yes, but it wasn’t to stay on Earth where I’m just another face in the crowd. I was _meant_ to meet you because you’re all a part of my destiny, a part of Voltron, a part of me.”

Lance felt his eyes tingling. He would not let himself cry. “So, you don’t think of us as anything else as a part of your destiny?”

Lucy’s head shot up. “What? No! No! _No!!!_ That’s not what I said at all!” Lucy said, grabbing his hands tightly in hers, so much strength in those small fingers. “You are my _family_ , Lance. You and Katie and Hunk and Keith are all a part of Voltron, yes, but _you_ , you and Katie are my family. You have always been and will _always_ be my family.”

Lance said nothing. But he did draw her closer.

* * *

Keith could easily say that Pidge and Hunk were his favorite members of the ragtag humans that came from Earth.

They didn’t carry nearly as much drama as Lucy and Lance did. And even so, he found himself becoming antsy in their presence, quite possibly because Hunk hadn’t shut up for the past fifteen minutes and Pidge hadn’t done anything to stop him, simply looking towards where Lance had exited with a faraway look in her eyes.

“You think they’re okay? Lance seemed kinda upset. Like really upset. Hey, Pidge? You think there’s such thing as a space PopTart? Or like a space cake? Oooh! Maybe there’s such thing as space video games! Oh, man I’ve been dying to play some Fortnite since I got here.”

Keith tuned him out after that.

He thought about what had happened in Allura’s room, he thought long and hard about what Lance had said to him, what Lucy had said to him, a very odd mixture of wisdom, strength, and a naïve vulnerability in her eyes. _You have spent years without love, Keith Kogane. It must be tearing you apart._ The music box had been it for him, seeing Allura’s gift in Lucy’s hands had been too much. He missed her so badly. He missed his family.

_It must be tearing you apart._

_Yeah_ , he thought back to Lucy, knowing she couldn’t hear him. _You have no idea._

He looked up when Lance came down the stairs, Lucy at his side. An odd expression had surfaced in her eyes when her eyes rested on Keith. Not the anger he had expected from her at his defiance, but a hard acceptance. He nodded at her in return, acknowledging the words they had exchanged. Lance, ever the noticer, narrowed his eyes and entwined his hand in Lucy’s. Lucy smiled at him, impossibly unaware of the pointless jealousy coming from the red paladin.

“Okay…” Hunk said carefully, his eyes shifting from Lance, to Lucy, to Keith and then back to Lucy. “So what do we do now? Do we like… come up with another plan to defeat the evil guys or what?”

Keith snorted. Yeah, they were gonna defeat the entirety of the Galra Empire in their state. A bunch of untrained humans, one Altean who had no clue what power she possessed or how to use them and an irritable ex-blade member with a murderous grudge.

Keith crossed his arms. “Now?” he repeated. “No. Now we train. Now I teach you how to fight. The win against Sendak was pure luck. If you’re gonna beat the Galra Empire and find whatever Lucy’s looking for, you’re gonna need to fight.”

“Oh, man,” Hunk groaned. “And here I thought we were gonna finally get space pizza.”

* * *

Lucy usually didn’t like relying on a person, but she felt like she definitely had to rely on Lance as she and he worked together to take Keith down. To make matters worse, Hunk and Katie were sitting on the sidelines, snickering at the both of them as Keith danced circles around them. Lucy snarled in impatience when her glowing whip missed Keith by inches. Lance was attempting and failing to shoot the lithe paladin with his machine gun time and time again. Keith’s eyes glittered with what seemed to be amusement.

“You guys have to work together!” He grunted as he neatly dodged another of Lucy’s clumsy attacks. “You're always going on about how you guys know each other better than anyone. Well lemme tell you,” _Thrust!_ His blade narrowly missed Lance, who squeaked in surprise. “The best of friends are the best of fighters. Show me how well you work together! Show me how you fight!”

Lucy cried out in frustration. “We weren’t born to this!” She protested, going back to back with Lance. Keith circled them like a shark, toying, going easy. “We aren’t fighters!”

Keith rolled his eyes. “You wanna fight the Galra? You learn! And you!” He looked at Lucy. “You’re Altean! Use some of your abilities!”

“Abilities?!” Lucy blocked a throw.

Keith snorted in reply. “Work together!” He said again.

“Oh _wow_ , _yelling_ at us! Yeah. Sooooooo not helping!” Lance snapped.

“Do you want me to go on you harder then?” Keith said snarkily. “That’d help you!”

“Lance, stop antagonizing him!” Lucy said.

“Stop arguing! Fight!” Keith rebutted.

“I was defending you!”

In a blur, Keith struck a sharp fist to Lucy’s jaw, eliciting a surprised shriek from the latter. “And I’m trying to ensure your goddamn survival!” He quipped. “Now fight back, Lucy! Stop defending!”

Lucy whipped around, a shocked scowl curling unpleasantly on her lips. And then she leapt at him, her platinum hair whirling around her as they engaged in true combat. Lance, noticing the shift in her behavior, narrowed his eyes and drew his gun yet again, taking a protective stance at Lucy’s side. Lucy, who was still reeling and seething from the punch, barely noticed Lance, and Keith, rolling his eyes, easily grabbed the girl’s wrist and flipping her over his shoulder. The air was knocked out of Lucy with a shocking intensity, momentarily keeping her from breathing.

The attack stopped.

Lance was by her side, of course, helping her to her feet. Keith watched her from a distance with narrowed eyes, his arms crossed.

“What the hell, man?!” Lance shrieked. “You could have seriously hurt her!”

Keith rolled his eyes, keeping them locked on Lucy. “She’s tougher than you think she is, string bean,” said Keith. “And I simply stopped the fight by throwing her. If she was an enemy, I could have– _would_ have– done something much worse.” Keith’s dark eyes bore into Lucy. “Do you know why I stopped?”

She glared at him in bewilderment, touching the side of her face. “You punched me.” Lucy said dreamily, not quite accepting it.

Keith smirked. “Yeah, but that’s not the reason I stopped. Try again.”

“Try again? _Try again?!_ You _punched_ me! How is that fair?”

“War isn’t fair,” Keith snapped. “Try. Again. Lucy. Why did I stop the fight? What did you do wrong?”

“Aside from not punching? Because apparently we’re allowed to do that.”

“You let your anger get the better of you,” Keith said, ignoring the previous quip. “I punched you because I knew what would happen. You forgot about your teammate because you let your anger for me cloud your strategy.”

“Oh, because you do so well at controlling your anger.” Lucy said, still not over the fact that Keith punched her.

Keith pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m better at it than you are,” he said, waving his arm. “Lance, Lucy, get into position. We’re going again. This time, work together.”

They did.

The rest of the day was all swords. Lance and Hunk sparred for what seemed to be hours; Katie worked with Lucy on her form. And Keith, Keith seemed invigorated by it, his eyes shining and bright with excitement. Lucy had never seen him this way, except of course, in the heat of true battle. Battle brought out his admirable traits.

“Patience, Pidge!” Keith was telling Katie. “Keep your body low. Use your height to your advantage. Remember: you may be shorter, but you are faster. You have less weight to carry around.”

 _Clang!_ Katie jabbed with her beyard, knocking Keith’s sword from his grip and sending it spiraling. It sunk into the floor with a satisfying rickety noise. Lucy clapped her hands, pleased with her friend’s development.

“Good work, Pidge!” Keith grinned, a rare genuine smile. Katie beamed at the praise.

“Thanks!”

“You’re a natural.”

“Well I took fencing when I was little…”

“You took what?”

“Never mind.”

Keith looked dumbfounded, probably wondering how fences worked in fights. “Okay. Well… good job anyways. You can go clean up if you want.”

Katie grinned at him, passing Lucy on her way out the door. Lucy, who was stretching on the floor, smiled at her friend, waving at her. Keith watched her go, then he turned to Lucy, expression suddenly sheepish.

An embarrassed cough. “I...uh...I’m sorry I punched you.”

Lucy raised an eyebrow. “Hmph,” she said. “You should be. That was unexpected and unfair. And painful.”

“Yeah, I guess it was for your first time fighting.” He rubbed his hands on his arms, carefully avoiding her gaze.

“Well,” said Lucy. “I accept your apology.”

He blinked. “Really?”

“Did you not think I was ever going to forgive you?”

“I really didn’t know,” Keith tilted his head. “I don’t really understand you all the time.”

Lucy snorted.

“You’re unpredictable.” Keith clarified awkwardly.

Lucy thought about that for a minute. Thought about it really, very hard.

Then, in a sudden act of true unpredictability, Lucy did something that she was sure she hadn’t thought out. She flung herself at him, knowing it’d be the last thing he’d expect her to do at the end of a long day.

Lucy had the pleasure of seeing surprise light up his dark eyes for the briefest moment before he accustomed himself to her sudden assault. Lucy slammed into him, with enough force to force him backwards, grabbing the knife off of his belt and centering it at his throat. “I win.”

Keith grinned widely at her, an unbelievably dazzling smile. She’d forgotten how fast he was, his arm a blur as it wrapped around her, pulling her back to his chest. Now the knife was pressed to her throat. “I win.” Keith said.

Lucy shivered. But she was not about to give up.

In a swift move she didn’t even know she was capable of, she grabbed hold of her assailant, lifting him off the floor and slamming him to the floor. Keith leapt to his feet like a cat, grinning like the one from Alice in Wonderland. Lucy felt herself grinning back. “ _That_ was for punching me in the face.”

He was so fast. The glowing blade was out in a matter of milliseconds, coming at her in the next few milliseconds. Lucy barely had enough time to grab her beyard, to counter the blow. But still, she was irritated to know that Keith was still going easy on her. She could see it in the way he held back, not going as hard as he did when he fought Sendak.

Lucy struck at him, scowling. “You’re letting me win,” she accused. “Come on, Kogane. Fight.” Knowing he wouldn’t expect another assault from her anytime soon, she launched herself at him yet again, the force of the impact pushing them back. Keith caught her before she fell against him, his hands firmly on her shoulders. Keeping her a professional distance from him.

Lucy didn’t want distance. Her body, ringing with adrenaline, sang for him. But she didn’t push him.

Keith pushed her gently, but firmly away from him. His dark eyes were unreadable. “That’s enough for today,” he said. “You need sleep.” He ran a nervous hand through his already mussed hair, casting an uncertain glance her way. He looked like he wanted to say something else, so very desperately, so Lucy said it instead.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Telling you how to live your life. I mean… I really don’t want you living a life of hatred and revenge, but I had no right telling you that outright.”

He said nothing for a while, staring at the floor instead of at her. Then he muttered a quiet “thanks” and began walking to the exit.

But halfway there, he stopped. Looked at her. Opened his mouth. Closed it again. Opened it again. In the end, he settled with a small nod. “You did good today,” said Keith. There it was again. That hesitation. Then he bit his lip, a slight amusement in his eyes. “...well done.”

Lucy nodded at him, treading softly after him as he exited once more.

* * *

Keith had never really been a night person, not really understanding how anyone could stay up later than eleven o’clock in Earth time. He was never able to. And now that he was accustoming to life on the castle ship, he had to adjust to the makeshift room. Or: the prison cell that reminded him more of the Blade’s sleeping quarters than of Allura’s guest bedroom.

And then there were the Earthlings.

Oh, the Earthlings.

He supposed it was some kind of a culture thing, but whenever he did wake up in the middle of the night, he’d pad on down to the common room, walking into Pidge and Hunk usually, either working on some technology beyond Keith’s level of comprehension or playing something Hunk referred to as a “video game”. Sometimes Lance would be with them, sometimes Lucy’d be there, her legs crossed and her eyes impossibly bright.

He didn’t get them.

He didn’t get how they could stay up that late, doing universe knows what on the monitor screen.

So this is how he found himself the night after the training session; his eyes wide awake and staring at the top of the ceiling, his legs hopelessly entangled in the thin sheets and his arms dangling over the side of the bed. With an irritated grunt, Keith flipped to his side, punching the pillow just for good measure. It didn’t do any good. The thing was as thin and floppy as it was a second ago.

He’d always had trouble sleeping through the night, but this was ridiculous.

Frustrated, Keith shut his eyes again.

Tried to go to sleep. Nope.

_That’s it._

Keith threw his sheets over his legs, throwing his legs over the side of the bed. After finally falling prey to his restlessness, Keith got out of bed and walked down the dark hallways to the star map room. Keith looked around, half expecting Hunk and Pidge to hop out of a hiding place, twin wide grins on their faces, saying: _We got you! You were really scared, Fearless Leader!_

But no. No Pidge. No Hunk. Not even Lance or Lucy– and then that’s when the door had hissed open, and Lucy had padded in, rubbing her clear eyes with her slim fingers. He tried half-heartedly to slink carefully back to his room, to safety, but Lucy had already seen him, frozen with her hand in her platinum hair, eyes wide.

“Uh…” He said brilliantly.

A hint of a smile came across Lucy’s lips, which turned to a knowing smirk. “You have such a way with words,” she teased.

“Yeah,” Keith said. Brilliantly. Again.

Lucy was chuckling now. “It’s okay,” she said dismissively. “I’m not going to lecture you on your nocturnal ways.” Keith had no idea what she was talking about. He didn’t get a chance to ponder it. She simply shook her head, rolled her eyes in the true way of the Earthlings, grabbed his hand and brought him to the edge of the ship, to the window. “Watch the stars with me?”

Keith was too shocked to properly reply. He said something intelligent, like “Uh, wha..?” and Lucy laughed at him.

“Sit with me.”

He did.

They sat in silence for a while, just watching the stars for a long while. Keith thought about what Sendak said for a short time, about Allura still being alive. He quickly dismissed the thought and went back to numbly watching the stars pass by. Keith was painfully aware of Lucy next to him, her energy buzzing with a certain frequency, making it impossible for him not to notice her. After a long while, he gathered the courage to look at her, at the shine to her eyes, to her hair, to her skin. Like a shimmering moon goddess, she shone. Her Altean markings, unconcealed for once, shone as well, pink like Allura’s had been. For the first time in a long while, Keith thought a dangerous thought. But then, he thought of Allura, and not wanting to betray her memory, stopped.

If Lucy noticed, she didn’t say anything, simply staring, her arms wrapped around her knees. Bare legs. _Shit_. Keith looked away.

“Why… why are you out here?” He asked finally. “Could you not sleep either?”

Lucy’s lashes fell, casting shadows on her skin. “You’ll think I’m pathetic.”

He thought of her bravery, her persistence, her unyielding stubbornness and the fierce way she protected those she loved and he shook his head adamantly. “Never.”

She looked at him in surprise. Blinked, as if she was subtly pleased with the off-handed comment. Maybe she was. A smile curled Lucy’s lips, confirming Keith’s theory. “Alright,” she said. “I had a nightmare. And I was… looking for Lance. He would always comfort me, when I had those.”

“Ah,” Keith nodded. “Nightmares are the worst.”

Lucy laughed. A bright, tinkling laugh reminiscent of pleasure, of one surprised and overjoyed to have found someone to have finally understood. “Aren’t they?” said Lucy. “Aren’t they the worst?” She laughed again, returning her gaze to the window. Lucy’s grip tightened on her legs, and she shifted, displaying a rare sort of insecurity. Keith felt a jolt of discomfort. He had always thought of Lucy as so very confident, sure of herself and of her future. It had never occurred to him that she would be insecure of her past. Her eyes unfocused, as if she wasn’t really there with him, but in another realm entirely. “Sometimes I wonder,” said Lucy. “If I really had a family. If I really come from an alien planet. Or if I just hallucinated the whole thing like Lance tells me. He thinks that I truly do come from Earth, that I just wanted to feel like I had a definite purpose and so I made up the story that I first remember.”

Keith felt the sudden urge to touch the markings on her cheeks. He didn’t, knowing he’d make the situation all the more awkward. “No offense to your friend, but I think that’s a load of shit,” Keith said. “He’s just coming up with excuses. You have markings. Allura had markings like that. You have her pointed ears as well. _And_ you can drive the castle ship and create wormholes. To my knowledge, only Alteans can do that.”

The tip of Lucy’s ear, poking adorably from the soft confines of her hair, turned a bright red, and she quickly moved her platinum hair to cover it. “Why would Lance say those things to me if they weren’t true?”

Keith said nothing. Unrequited love wasn’t his specialty. Nor did he want to even go down that route with Lucy. No. That was Lance’s bombshell to drop. Lucy looked at him for a long while, and then, realizing he wasn’t going to say anything, nodded mutely and dropped it.

Keith waited for her to speak again, disappointed when she didn’t. He hated that he had grown accustomed to her voice, that after all these years, contact, even through listening, was comforting to him. And Lucy, Lucy loved to talk. He liked to listen. It worked. Lucy didn’t look at him again, perhaps worrying about Lance. Her eyes shone brightly, gleams of stardust in an otherwise dark world. He wondered how she could stay so sane. How in a life full of pain, and suffering and insanity, that she could retain her jubilant youth and boundless curiosity.

In an act of impulsiveness, Keith reached out and touched a strand of platinum hair, curling his fingers around it and tucking it neatly behind her pointed ear. She looked at him in bewilderment, her hands going immediately to put the hair back over her ear. Keith stopped her. “No,” he said. “Don’t do that.”

“Why?” She asked him, a desperate, searching look to her eyes. “Why won't you let me keep them hidden? They’re so damn hideous, Keith, you must understand that!”

Keith shook his head, fighting back a laugh. Yeah, he did understand that. Especially being half-Galra. Not that he was planning on telling her that anytime soon; their forming friendship was fragile enough. So he settled on a; “No, they’re not. They’re perfect. You don’t need to hide who you are from the universe, Lucy. Not when you’re the last Altean alive. It’s something to be proud of. The fact that even after the brutal Emperor Zarkon destroyed Altea, that you and you alone survived. Wear your markings proudly, Lu. They, like the rest of you, are beautiful.”

She stared at him in shock, and in a similar state of shock, he realized he had just called her beautiful. Lucy tucked the hair back behind her ear and smiled softly at him. The gesture, while somewhat reminiscent of Allura, really only reminded him of the woman sitting besides him. The one soft smile was uniquely gifted to Lucy the Orphan of the planet Earth. Not Princess Allura of Altea.

“Thank you.” Lucy said.

“You’re welcome.” Keith replied.

Then, together, in comfortable silence, they watched the universe pass them by, for once not thinking of the war looming over their heads.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So season 6 was WILD!!! I’m trying to get back in the swing of this story because I know that a lot of people like it for some reason. I have a general outline for where I want this story to go. Progress, people. Progress. Thanks for sticking by me!


	19. Go Insane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter got out of hand... but I hope it’s still good. It’s angsty, though. Gotta warn you.

_Lucy walked around aimlessly, the blackness around her absorbing her senses like a sponge, leaving her unaware and terrified. All that was left was the shadow of a boy, standing across from her. Lucy cried out in shock, a sudden urge to run to him and wrap herself in his arms taking over her. But it would not happen; it hadn’t happened in the thousands of thousands of times she dreamed and it sure as hell would not happen now._

_Instead, they stood across from each other, stretched blackness keeping them at a far distance, forever in the state of limbo. Lucy ached to run to him, to pull him to her – and with him, who she had once been – but she stayed where she was, knowing that once she did, the dream would be over, and she’d be alone once more._

_The infinite nothingness that tied them did nothing to block voice, so Lucy called to him as she had so many times before. “Hello? Hello! Who are you?” The boy said nothing, his mesmerizing dark eyes peering at her. She had seen those eyes before. Where had she seen eyes like that before? “Why?” Lucy whispered desperately. “Why do I know you? How could I possibly know you?”_

_And like she had many, many times before, Lucy lost control of herself and of the dream. The dam keeping her from him broke, releasing emotion upon emotion. She ran to him, fully intent on getting the information she needed from him. She needed to touch him, needed to feel him, needed to know who he was.  
_

_But this time, he didn’t disappear._

_Instead, the dream she thought she knew disappeared in a flash.  
_

_Lucy found herself watching two people that stuck out in an otherwise blurred crowd; a small girl with tumbling silver curls that poked out of the confines of her black cloak, and a lanky boy running far ahead of her._

_When Lucy looked carefully at the girl, she realized she was staring at herself.  
_

_She never saw the boy’s face_.

Flash!

_She watched herself as a small child, with the same faceless boy. He hid behind a taller man, an apple held protectively in his grip.  
_

_“That was supposed to be my dinner.”  
_

_“You don’t turn friends in now do you?”  
_

_Even though she couldn’t see, she knew the shadow boy was grinning._

_She never saw the boy’s face._

Flash!

_She saw flashes of fire, purple lanterns in the depths of darkness that looked horrifyingly like eyes. Heard echoes upon echoes of brutal, terrifying screams. A hand pulled her through the crowd, away from the gargantuan man that wanted her dead. He had killed her parents._  
Zarkon.

_She saw the boy stop. Hold her hand._

_She saw herself smile.  
_

_“Best friends. Forever and always.”  
_

_“Promise?”_

“ _Promise.”  
_

_She never saw the boy’s face._

Flash!

_And then, just as she was beginning to drift into a dreamless darkness, Keith’s face popped into her mind_ (Dark hair long and bangs covering the majority of his face. His dark eyes partially concealed by hair peered out from behind the black strands, somehow lamenting in their unnatural largeness…).

“ _Wake up, Lucy,” a voice called from the opposite direction. She turned to face it. It was back at the beginning, so it seemed, with the shadow boy and her being separated by a void of blackness. Only the shadow boy wasn’t a boy anymore. He was a man. “Wake up, Lucy!” He called. “You_ have _to wake up!_ Open your eyes!”

_So she did._

Familiar dark eyes greeted her, unusual concern lacing them. It also quickly became clear to Lucy just how close they were, and just how she was positioned.

Her head was resting comfortably on Keith’s shoulder, her body leaning on him. She leapt up as if his touch burned her, and he watched her motions with a bland half-smile.

“What are you doing?” Lucy breathed in bewilderment.

Keith arched an eyebrow, probably in a way he knew she hated. “You fell asleep,” he said. “And you were having a nightmare. I thought I should have woken you up.” Keith shrugged nonchalantly, then looked at her carefully with an unnervingly scrutinizing gaze. “What were you dreaming about?”

Lucy remembered hearing the laughs, the screams, seeing the boy become a man. She shuddered. “I don’t remember.”

He looked at her with a leveled gaze, not looking the slightest like he believed her. He looked away. Then he stared at her a little longer, and stood up. “We should get up,” said Keith with a shake of his head and a measured look. “Unless you want your friends to find us here. Cause trust me, I don’t want to be the one explaining this to String Bean.”

She glared at him. “His name is Lance,” said Lucy. “And he’s a valuable part of this team. Just like you.”

Keith shrugged again. “Yeah, maybe,” he said with a chuckle. “But that wasn’t my point.”

“So what was your point?”

He gave her a long, measured look. “It’s not my place to say,” he said. “He needs to come to his own and tell you himself.”

“What are you–?“

It was at that precise moment, that Lance decided to storm into the map room, his hair tousled, his cheeks flushed red. “What the hell?!” He demanded. “What’s this? Some kind of fucked up slumber party?!” He was soon followed by Hunk and Katie, who had twin expressions of confusion on their faces.

But Lance’s piercing gaze was locked on Keith, demanding an answer. Lucy was hoping that he’d be at least willing to say something that may quell Lance's rage, but he was looking at Lance with a face as red as a tomato, leaving Lucy to deal with the problem on her own.

“Lance, it isn’t like that,” she started. He glared at her, quite nearly forcing her to back down, but Lucy did not. When he said nothing, motioning for her to continue with his hands, she exchanged a quick glance with Keith, who stared at her blankly. She sighed. “I had a nightmare,” she said. “No! No!” she interrupted when Lance looked as if he were about to rage again. “Not like that. I wasn’t looking for Keith, Lance. I was looking for _you_. You always used to help me with nightmares, remember?”

He said nothing.

“He was here,” Lucy said. “So I decided to sit with him. He helped me, talked to me. Okay? He didn’t hurt me.”

Lance looked back and forth between the two, but said nothing. Katie grabbed his arm, whispering something to him and leading him away. _Sorry_ , she mouthed to Lucy. Lucy felt the guilt pool into her heart and she didn’t look at Keith when she went to chase after her family.

* * *

“Why won’t he talk to me?”

Katie and Lucy were currently sitting outside Lance’s room, the latter with her head in her hands. Katie was resting her hand on Lucy’s back. “He’s got a lot going on right now,” Katie told her. “I guess he’s not really taking this whole space adventure that well. Which is kinda weird; this _is_ his kind of thing.”

“I wish there was something I could do,” Lucy said miserably. “It’s like he’s not telling me everything. We were best friends; he used to be so much different. We used to have fun together and now…? Now, he just yells at me for trying to find my family and judges me for my… associations with Keith, who’s our _leader_ and nothing else...” Lucy trailed off awkwardly, and tried not to think of her dream, and the man with the alluring dark eyes. She shook her head.

Katie was looking at her oddly. “Go talk to him, Luce,” she sighed. “Trust me, the only reason he’s acting like this is because of change. In my experience, there’s one place where Lance always wanted to be and that’s at your side. You just need to talk to him.”

Lucy looked at Katie, at the odd look in her eyes when she mentioned Lance. Just as something was forming, an idea somewhere in her consciousness, Katie shook her head, her eyes once again shut like iron doors. She gave Lucy a small, pitying smile, patted her on the back and rose to her feet.

“Go talk to him,” said Katie. “He’ll listen to you.”

“Katie, are you–?“

But she was already walking away, and Lucy was alone at Lance’s door. _It’s not my place to say. He has to come to his own and tell you himself._

_Tell me what?!_ She yelled internally at Keith.

She shook it off, took a deep breath and knocked three times on the door, her heart beating hard and fast in her chest.

“Who is it?” Lance asked suspiciously.

Lucy hesitated before answering, allowing a slight lilt to enter her tone though she felt no ounce of happiness.

“It’s Lucy,” she said. Silence. She sighed, slamming her head against the cool metal of the door. “Please, Lance. I want to talk to you.”

Silence again, and then she heard the slight sound of footsteps coming to the door. Then silence again. Lucy groaned.

“Lance, I know you’re there. Please just talk to me. I want to know what’s going on.”

The door opened with a click, and a suspicious looking blue eye leveled its gaze at her. “Did Pidge come to get you?” He asked her.

“No,” she shook her head. “I mean, yes, she came with me to see you, but I wanted to speak with you on my own.”

Silence, then the door opened all the way, revealing a furious and tired looking Lance, with mussed hair, suspicious eyes and blue lion slippers that Lucy had no clue where he had gotten. “Come on,” he sounded resigned. “Even though I really don’t wanna talk to you, I know you’re gonna stay outside my door until I let you in.”

Lucy grinned and stepped inside, looking inside at the familiar mess that was already becoming Lance’s room. She picked up a picture on the bed stand: a picture of her, Katie and Lance at Disneyland. Katie was on Lance’s back and Lucy was in the front, her eyes crossed and her hands making peace signs. Lance was laughing uncontrollably: they all were. Lucy smiled remembering. Rae had taken the picture. She looked at Lance, who was watching her carefully. “I didn’t know you kept this picture.”

“You never asked,” he said.

Lucy shook her head laughing. “I remember that trip. We were so happy then. Remember when you dropped that ice cream and then you dared Katie to eat it off the floor?”

A hint of a smile crossed Lance’s face, but he corrected it, as if he were remembering to stay mad at her. Lucy kept going.

“And then here comes the kicker, Lance. Do you remember? Huh?” She grinned at him. He glared back, but she could see him cracking. “She did it, Lance. I know you remember. She licked the ice cream off the floor.”

“Anthnshegtkckedout.” He muttered, looking at the floor.

“What was that?”

He snickered. “And then she got kicked out.”

“And then Rae was prepared to kill us.”

“Ha! She almost did! I was scared to stay in the same hotel building as her cause I seriously thought she was gonna stab us in our sleep!”

Lucy laughed. Lance joined in, and for a moment, it was almost as it was in the old days, where it was her and Lance against the world and the most she had to worry about was being adopted without Lance.

But it wasn’t.

Already the differences were visible in her and her best friend. This new world changed them. Lance had small slivers of scars adorning his arms, back and even his face now; his eyes didn’t shine the way they used to. The once boundless cerulean blue was now more concentrated, like a flame.

And her.

Already when she looked in the mirror, she saw a different person. Her cheek markings, now fully visible to the world, shone brightly like a beacon. Her eyes shone brighter, though there were dark circles under her eyes from many sleepless nights. Even her hair, precariously dyed a platinum blonde, was beginning to grow back, and the silvery-gray roots poking up from the top of her head were becoming harder and harder to ignore.

Lucy couldn’t go back. She knew it. And deep down, she thought, Lance knew it too.

“Lance–“

“We should go back.”

“What?”

He wasn’t looking at her. His gaze was far away, unfocused. Another thing that differed from the Lance that she had once knew. He so rarely daydreamed; he was always right there, in reality. “We should stop now,” he said. “Before you get hurt. We should take Katie and take the blue lion or something. Go back to Earth. See Rae, maybe get a job or something and start our own life, just the three of us.You’re almost eighteen, Lucy. We could do it.” He didn’t look very hopeful, like he knew Lucy was going to veto it.

He knew her too well.

“Lance…”

He rolled his eyes, scoffing and leaping to his feet, renewed anger in his eyes. He whirled around to look at her and when he did, Lucy was surprised at how much malice she saw. “I knew you wouldn’t listen,” he said. “You’re too far into this, Luce. This is dangerous work! We – I – don’t belong here, Lucy!” He seemed to break like a glass vase, his eyes glass shards as he knelt down before her like he was proposing. “I know, I know you want to find your family, Lucy, but this is dangerous. We – I – can’t keep doing this without getting seriously hurt.”

When she spoke next, it was in a devastated whisper. Was he planning on leaving? “But… you’re my best friend.”

His eyes widened in pain. “Yeah, I am. And you’re mine. But–“

“Lance,” tears were filling Lucy’s eyes now, making it hard for her to see Lance’s expressions. “We’re so close… so close to finding out who I once was.. we can–“

Blue eyes flashed. “Oh and how are we gonna continue to do that, huh? Keep fighting this fucking random ass war that we have virtually no part in so you can keep canoodling with your mysterious space boyfriend?!”

Lucy was outraged. “Mysterious space boyfriend?!” she cried. “He’s not my boyfriend! We can barely even stand each other! And I am _Altean_ , Lance! My planet was destroyed by Zarkon, my entire _family_ was probably killed and I was probably forced to watch! And you have the _nerve_ to say to me that this isn’t our fight! It is mine! And why? Why do you hate Keith so much? He never did anything to you! He even saved our lives multiple times!”

Lance rolled his eyes with an angry scoff. “Yeah, okay. Sure. So he saved our lives, Lucy. Doesn’t make him any less of a complete asshole.”

“He is not an asshole! And this coming from you? You’re the one who flirts with every single girl we come across! You’re the one who shuts down every single thing he says! You’re the one who runs away and pouts whenever something happens that you don’t like, just so I can come console you about it later! Just like this! And you say he’s the asshole! Seriously, I cannot _believe_ you, _Loverboy Lance.”_

Lance flinched. “That’s different, Lucy.”

“How?! How the living _hell_ is it any different?”

His eyes flashed. “Because I’ve never seen you look at _anyone_ like you look at Keith! You claim that you hate each other but anyone can see that’s a fucking joke! And he’s not worthy of you. He’s an asshole!”

“And you? You’ve never looked at anyone like that? I don’t understand your resistance, Lance! So what if I do like Keith? What? What are you planning to do about it? Huh? Do you want me to start berating you for flirting with everything that breathes and has big boobs?”

He didn’t even look at her. “You don’t understand anything, Lucy. You don’t understand, always too caught up in your dreams and your fantasies to really see what’s right in front of you!”

“Then help me understand! Why are you acting so weird?!”

“Oh my fucking god, I was _trying to make you jealous!!_ ”

Lucy blinked, at a loss for words for once. “I...wha…? Trying to make me jealous? Why?”

She knew as soon as the words came out, that that was the worst thing she could have said.

Lance’s face was blank, his eyes, always so expressive, were dead weight, as if all the hope and light had dissipated, leaving only blackness. “Because,” he said. “I’ve been in love with you since you first came to the orphanage twelve years ago.”

He looked at her for a minute, expecting Lucy to say something. But what could she say? Did she love him? Could she love him?

As she looked at him, scanning his thin face, the blue defiant eyes, the thin dusting of freckles that decorated his pixie like nose, she knew the answer. The face of the person that had become her brother, her best friend, twisted in pain, the blue eyes flashing in misery.

“Yeah,” he said, voice cracking. “I didn’t think you felt that way about me anyways.”

He stood up, storming over to the pit of clothes. Lance began angrily stuffing clothes into a bag, carefully avoiding Lucy’s eyes. Lucy watched him numbly, not in control of her limbs.

He loved her.

He had been in love with her for twelve years and she hadn’t even known.

How had she not known? Even Keith had known. _It’s not my place to say. He needs to come to his own and tell you himself._

He had known. Even at the beginning.

Lance was muttering to himself now, stuffing his belongings into the small bag. His baby blanket went in, the necklace that Katie had given him as a joke but that he always wore anyways, the picture of all three of them.

“Lance, what–?” His death glare, a look of pure hate plunged her into silence.

“I’m leaving,” he said plainly. “There’s no place for me here. I only came with you to protect you and it seems you have your dark knight to do that so I don’t need to be here.”

“I – you’re going back to Earth? Lance, no!”

He threw the bag over his shoulder and without a second glance at her, he stormed out of the now cleanish room. Lucy bounded after him, yelling his name until her voice was hoarse. But he had always been faster than she was, so he gained a quick lead, and soon overtook Lucy entirely.

“Lance, what–?!” She heard Katie cry.

“Are you coming?”

“Coming where?”

It was at this precise moment when Lucy threw open the doors to the kitchen, and both the enraged face of Lance and the confused one of Katie swiveled to look at her. Lucy barely recognized the calm voice that escaped her. “He’s going back to Earth.”

Katie’s mouth parted, and she turned back to face the fuming Lance. “What? Why? Lance, you can’t–!”

He held up a hand to stop her, but his eyes were locked with Lucy’s. “She doesn’t need me here,” Lance said, his voice scary calm. “And I don’t want to be here.”

Understanding clouded Katie’s eyes, followed by pity. “Lance–“

“Are you coming or not?”

Katie opened her mouth and closed it again, her honey eyes torn at seeing her family fighting. Those eyes flicked from Lance, to Lucy and then back to Lance again. Then she looked at Lucy again, and stepped to stand at her side. Lance’s face twisted and he glared at both of them. Lucy resisted the urge to pull Katie behind her.

“Fine,” he said. “Then you can both die here. See if I care.”

Lucy cried out in pain and just for a moment, Lance’s eyes flickered with something akin to regret, before they descended yet again to hostility and hatred. Katie stood absolutely still as Lance whirled from the room again, storming to where Lucy knew the red lion’s hangar was.

“Lance,” she breathed before racing after him. “Lance don’t do this! _Lance don’t do this! Please!”_

Through the twisting hallways they went, the red paladin and the blue. One trying to escape, the other trying to stop the other. Both trying to have their own way. As the red lion came into view, its yellow eyes gleaming with what appeared to be a sort of anger, Lucy began to lose her hope.

But she kept running after her best friend, even as he ascended to the red lion.

“Lance!” she called. “ _Lance! LANCE!!_ ”

He finally turned, just as the mouth of the red lion was about to shut.

“Please,” Lucy pleaded. “You’re my best friend.”

He flinched, and for a second, Lucy saw her best friend again. But it was soon gone. And the imposter was back. “Not good enough,” he said before the mouth closed for good, separating Lance and Lucy for the first time in twelve years. And with one last supercilious look at her, the red lion took off into the depths of space, leaving Lucy to watch it until it disappeared with a flash of red into the universe.

“What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On. Here?”

Lucy whirled around to face the infamous Keith Kogane with every intention of punching him in his stupid, broody face, an irrational sense of anger coursing through her.

It was all his fault.

He made Lance disappear; because he was here, Lucy had been distracted from her best friend, the only person who had always been there for her.

Some part of her knew she was blaming him for something out of his control.

After all, _she_ was the one so oblivious as to not notice Lance’s unrequited love. _She_ was the one who always took him for granted, having him around even though it must have pained him. _She_ was the one who dragged him to space, away from the life he had always known.

_You don’t understand, always too caught up in your dreams and fantasies to really see what’s right in front of you._

But right now, irrationality drowned out any sort of subconscious blaming herself. Anyways, she didn’t deserve to see Keith after what she had done to Lance.

She didn’t even know what she was doing until she was right in Keith’s face, staring into those annoyingly mesmerizing dark eyes.

And then, her fist connected with his face, snapping it in the most satisfying way. Keith’s face whipped to the side, and then snapped back to her. His eyes were angry, a proposed outraged question lingering on his lips. Lucy spoke before he got a chance to.

“Fuck you,” she spat. “You ruin everything!”

And then she whirled around, storming back to her room, tears gathering in her eyes. She started off in a run, wanting nothing more than to get away from him and stuff her face into Lance’s pillow. So she changed course, pivoting as Keith called her name from behind her. She ran and ran, until she got to Lance’s room, locking the door behind her.

Then she curled up on his bed and held his pillow close to her chest as if it were him. She inhaled his scent like a pathetic person, and sobbed as the pounding began on Lance’s door, and her friends started yelling her name.

She didn’t answer. This was her punishment. Isolating herself for what she had done to Lance.

* * *

Lucy woke up to the sound of clicking, metal on metal, and then, eventually, a hiss as Lance’s door opened. Lucy knew it was childish, but she made herself as small as possible, curling herself up in a small, protective ball with the sheets entwined within her legs.

She didn’t acknowledge him when he called her name, she didn’t even notice the peculiar tone with which he used. As if he were worried for her. She brushed that thought aside. She didn’t need him here; she didn’t want him here. Lance was gone, because of her. She didn’t deserve to be happy.

Lucy felt the indentation as he sat down besides her, heard the complaining of the thin bed that bore their combined weight. Lucy felt his eyes on her, like a subtle invisible laser beam, and she didn’t even need to look to know he was still there.

“Lucy,”

She stiffened at the sound of her name, but didn’t respond. Lance had given her that name and now he was gone.

She heard him sigh and then silence descended yet again. He didn’t try to speak to her again, so she sat in the darkness, the lost Altean mourning the loss of her best friend with the black paladin at her side.


	20. Red Paladin

“Lucy, you’ve been here all night. You need to get up.”

She glared at him. “Wow, you are just so good at comforting people.”

He rolled his eyes but he didn’t say anything. Lucy scrambled in Lance’s bed, bringing herself to a sitting position. Keith watched her, his vigilant eyes gleaming in the dark.

“How long have you been here?”

“It took me about two hours to crack the crazy Altean technology keeping this door locked.”

Lucy looked at him in disbelief.

“Okay, Pidge helped a little.”

She kept staring at him.

“A lot,” he amended. “But that doesn’t matter. What matters now is that you’re just sulking in here like a kid who got told they couldn’t have a…a…”

“A cookie?” Lucy supplied.

“Yeah, a cookie,” Keith said. “Whatever. That’s not the point.”

“You seem to always have a point, actually,” Lucy said venomously. “But you never really seem to tell me what it is.”

She couldn’t see him very well in the dark, but Lucy knew he was rolling his eyes, his characteristically thin patience waning. “You’re hurt,” he said shortly. “And like a little kid, you come to hide in here and pout.”

“Well I’m so very sorry,” Lucy spat, offended. “We can’t all be untouchable dark brooding robots.”

Keith snorted, crossing his arms. “I don’t understand you people,” he said. “You’re so easily hurt. You react to the randomest things. Lance left. It’s done. It wasn’t your fault.”

Lucy shot him a look. “My best friend’s sudden leaving wasn’t random,” Lucy said. “It was my fault. I didn’t…” Her eyes unfocused, a frown creeping across her lips. “I didn’t understand what–“

“Yeah,” Keith said bitterly. “I get it. He loved you and you were oblivious. Unrequited love. I’ve seen it many times before. Not really a rare thing.”

Lucy glared daggers at him. “Do you always have to be such an…an–“

Keith gave her an amused side eye. “A what?”

“An _asshole_?” She spat, recalling Lance’s venomous words from before. “You really don’t care at all?”

“Oh, I care,” Keith said. “I care about Voltron. And now that Lance is gone, there’s no one to fly the red lion. Actually, no red lion at all.”

Lucy leapt to her feet, eyes flashing, face flushed, heart pounding in anger. “You don’t care that Lance is out there alone?! You don’t care that he’s galaxies away from Earth, gone on an impulse to God knows where? You don’t care that Lance could be hurt? Alone? _Captured_?!”

Keith met her glare with a measured look, but he didn’t answer. That was enough of an answer for Lucy. With a sudden swell of anger, she snatched the pillow besides her and lobbed it at Keith, who caught it with a guarded look, as if he’d expected this from her. She seized another of Lance’s forgotten possessions, flinging it at Keith, who was now out of his seat.

“How could you?” Lucy hissed. “How can you not care? How can you be so fucking _nonchalant_ about this entire situation?! Lance is out there, scared probably, or angry! And _alone_!!!” Lucy snatched another item, lobbing it at Keith’s face. He ducked, attempting to grab Lucy’s hands to keep her from throwing other things.

“Lucy, stop–“

“He trusted me!” She sobbed, throwing a pair of headphones. “He wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for me. I let him down! And now, you don’t even _care_ –“

She’d forgotten how fast he was. In a flash, Lucy was pinned to the wall, thrashing in Keith’s iron grip. He had her wrists in an iron grip, his body pushing against hers, inhibiting her movements. He said nothing, just watching her sob and struggle. Eventually, Lucy met his dark gaze unflinchingly, sneering at him. 

“Let go of me.” She said, her voice deathly calm.

“Are you going to hit me again?”

She didn’t answer. Keith nodded in affirmation. Then, he acquiesced, his hands releasing her wrists.

Lucy let out a battle cry before swinging at him again with her fists, managing to knock him in the face before he grabbed her hands again. Lucy struggled in his grip again, screeching like a wounded animal. Keith’s eyes were smouldering dark coals, his mouth an animalistic snarl. Lucy hated him. She hated how she felt, she hated those festering feelings that drove Lance from her.

“Are you done?”

She didn’t respond.

They didn’t speak again, just remaining against the wall, Keith’s hands wrapped like iron bands around her wrists, inhibiting her movements. He was breathing hard, almost as hard as she was, and if it had been any other situation, Lucy would have been proud of how much she had exhausted him. But all she felt now was rage. He looked at her carefully, as if she were about to break, and when he spoke again, his voice was rough and soft at the same time, his eyes smoldering. Lucy shuddered at the intensity, then immediately went back to glaring at him.

_Lance is gone because of you._

“We’re going to find him,” Keith said. “And not just because he has the red lion. He’s your family. I get it.” His eyes lingered on her as he left the room, the door hissing as if to announce his departure. Lucy, having all her energy and anger leave her in one fell swoop, sunk to the floor, her breath escaping her in a single sob.

* * *

It was late when the alarms went off, jarring Lucy from her self deprecating stupor. She leapt to her feet, drying her eyes with one hasty hand, and pushed her way out of the room, going the way she was sure Keith had gone. Red lights lit up the way to the control room, and sirens blared in her ears. Lucy covered her ears and ran on.

“Lucy!”

She whirled around to face Katie, who was white as a sheet. Lucy felt the sudden maternal urge to pull the tiny girl into her arms, but she resisted, for she knew how strong Katie was. Katie didn’t need comfort.

“Lucy, what’s going on?”

Lucy shook her head. “I don’t know,” she answered. “We have to get to the control room.”

Katie nodded in reply, a thoughtful look on her face. She frowned. “Do you think it’s about Lance?”

_Yes_. Lucy shuddered. “I don’t know.”

Katie looked at her carefully, her honey eyes all knowing and unnervingly scrutinizing. Lucy looked away. “Okay,” said Katie evenly, knowingly. “Then we’d better go.”

They ran together through the twisting hallways, the blaring red lights shrouding the castle in crimson. Despite the anger that the sight of Keith Kogane incited in her, Lucy still got the oddest butterflies when his eyes met hers. This time, though, the eyes that mesmerized her so were dark and swirling with an uncertain fear.

On the screen was the person from her nightmares, his eyes shining like dual purple lanterns, skin ashen and mouth twisted into a malicious smile. Zarkon. A woman stood by his side, her eyes glowing like candles of fire beneath her hood.

A thought tugged at Lucy, a memory of sorts. Flashing yellow eyes, an evil grin, and a head of black hair with a strip of white. A fight to the death.

_“Shiro!”_

“ _Go, Allura!_ Go!”

Before she had the chance to ponder the thought, Zarkon stepped aside to reveal a person, beaten and bloody. He looked as if he’d been fighting tooth and nail to rid himself of these foes. His arms were being held up by dead eyed sentries, as if he needed their help to stand on his own.

As if sensing her, cerulean blue eyes opened and rested on Lucy, a small glimmer of relief flickering in them before they closed yet again.

Before she knew it, she was being held back by strong arms, and her throat was sore from screaming. “Lance! Lance, no! _Lance!!!_ ” Lucy sobbed in Keith’s unyielding grip, her arms flailing, fists scrabbling for purchase.

Zarkon looked at her strangely, as if he hadn’t seen her until now. Recognition dawned in those eyes, and a smile crept upon his lips. Keith’s grip tightened on Lucy as rage overtook her.

“You son of a bitch! Let me go! Let me go! I need to get to Lance! _Lance_!”

Zarkon looked amused, as if she was a small child who had done something worth laughing at. Lucy hated him. “Lucy stop,” Keith whispered in her ear. She struggled against him. “ _Stop_.”

“Contain your pet Altean, Kogane,” Zarkon spoke at last, a low rumble that made Lucy’s blood boil. “Would you like me to repeat the terms?”

Lucy went limp in Keith’s arms, her heart pounding hard and fast in her chest. She kept her eyes on Lance. Keith nodded against her, and his arms loosened.

“Repeat the terms,” Keith said tersely, his dark eyes distrusting and angry. Lucy threw herself away from him, shuddering violently and sending him a glare so seething that he didn’t repeat the gesture. Keith glanced at her briefly before his eyes flicked back to Zarkon on the screen.

Zarkon turned to Lucy, a corner of his lip quirking up. Lucy saw Keith tense besides her, his stance all defensive. “I have your friend here, paladin,” said Zarkon. “Lance, as you call him. I’ve been searching for your ship for a long time, paladin, so imagine my surprise when the red lion shows up, alone, at the helm of one of my ships.”

“That’s not true. Lance would never give himself over.”

“He didn’t have to.” Zarkon smirked. “His idiocy led him here, to me. Apparently he was going back to a planet called Earth. What interests me is what Haggar tells me. You found the blue lion there. So now you tell me something, _Lucy_ ,” her name fell from his lips in a sickening parody of a caress, flowing smoothly from his tongue. “This Earth, it’s important to you. And to your friend here.”

Lucy glanced instinctively, helplessly, to Keith, and she could see the endless torrent of emotions in his eyes. He shook his head minutely, and Lucy pursed her lips, reigning in her anger for Lance’s sake and Lance’s sake only. Zarkon’s gaze returned to Keith after one last amused glance at Lucy.

“I ask for one thing,” drawled Zarkon. “And in return, your red paladin, unharmed.”

Keith glowered.

“Bring the four lions to me, and I will give you back your Lance.”

Click. The screen went black. Zarkon was gone and with him, Lance. Lucy felt Keith’s hand tighten around her arm in a vice like grip before she fell to the floor in a sudden shock and pain. Zarkon’s words echoed ceaselessly in her mind and she screamed.

* * *

Lucy’s scream made no sound. She sat there in the shocked silence for what seemed to be a few minutes but really was probably a few seconds. Her heartbeat did what it was meant to: beat, but at double the speed and triple the volume, going so fast that Lucy belatedly wondered if it was going to explode out of her chest.

A hand came on her shoulder, squeezing gently. Lucy turned her head wearily to see Hunk standing before her, his eyes kind and position comforting. He offered out a hand to her, which Lucy gladly took. She was done with tears; no matter how much she wanted to crawl into a little ball and sob like a child, she couldn’t let Lance be subjected to whatever torture the sadistic alien emperor had up his sleeve.

Katie spoke first, her eyes red-rimmed and her face blotchy from crying. Her voice was soft, frightened. “Luce, do you think he’s okay?”

Lucy shook her head, not wanting to say the words. Instead, she cupped her mouth with a gentle hand, looking away from Katie. Keith met her gaze, and his eyes blazed with hatred. At first? Lucy was taken aback– the looks he had given her were of annoyance at worst; he had never directed such ferocity to her– then it dawned on her that Zarkon must have been his sworn enemy for the longest time. He had murdered his family in cold blood. Lucy ached to comfort him.

“Keith,” she reached out to touch his arm, only for him to knock it away as if it stung him.

“We should go,” he said dismissively.

“Go?” Hunk echoed dully. “Go where?”

Keith’s face was in a permanent glower. “Go to get Lance,” he said shortly. “Where else?”

Hunk’s eyebrows rose sky high. “To...what?! Look I like Lance as much as the next guy but risking all the lions and our lives? Are we sure that’s the best option?”

“It’s the _only_ option,” Lucy’s voice was scarily calm, a torrent of emotion swirling behind the serenity. “Without the red lion, we cannot form Voltron. And he’s the best friend I’ve ever had,” Lucy crossed her arms. “If there were anyone I’d lay down my life for, it’s Lance.”

“Isn’t there like an intergalactic police system we could go to or something?” Hunk asked with a sheepish smile, pressing his thumbs nervously together.

“No,” Lucy snapped. “That would be us. There is only Voltron. And without Lance, there isn’t even that.”

They looked at her, but none of them seemed surprised. With one last spiteful glare at Hunk, Lucy stormed away, flicking her hair behind her like a mass of silvery fire. From a distance, Lucy heard footsteps coming quick behind her, and she whirled on the person, only to find Keith there with hands held up in surrender and eyes like black holes. If Lucy were being honest with herself, he seemed to be laughing at her.

“Are you finding this _funny_?!” She shrieked in bewilderment. 

Keith’s expression fell quickly, his amusement dying, and he looked at her with a guarded frown, as if he feared she would collapse or punch him or both. “No,” he said darkly. “None of this is funny. I just came to see if you were okay.”

Lucy let out a mirthless laugh. “Yeah, I’m great. My best friend, my brother, proclaims his undying love for me, storms off and is now in the clutches of an ancient evil overlord. But I’m okay, Keith. Really. I’m peachy.”

Keith blinked. “Are you being sarcastic?”

Lucy scoffed and turned back the way she came. Keith’s hand on her elbow spun her around to face him yet again.

His eyebrows were raised. “‘Undying love’?” He repeated.

“Ugh! I knew you were laughing at me!”

“No! No!” Keith grabbed her arm again, and with a chuckle and a brief hand through his hair, he grinned half-heartedly at her. “None of this is funny.”

“Then why are you laughing?”

He laughed again, shaking his head at her. Suddenly, belatedly, Lucy realized that this was the first time she had heard him laugh. Her face warmed and before she knew what she was doing, she smiled at him. _Because I’ve never seen you look at anyone like you look at Keith!_

Guilt pooled into her heart like an unpatchable leak. No. She couldn’t allow herself to feel the unnameable emotions. She couldn’t. Lance was somewhere suffering and it was all because of her obliviousness. Keith seemed to notice her discomfort and his eyes darkened. Why was it that he could read her better than she could read herself? She had just met him.

He shook his head. “You wanna find your friend?” Lucy couldn’t help but notice how he said your friend instead of ours. “Best bet is the planet Daibazaal. Destroyed Galra home planet. Zarkon’ll be there.” With that, he turned tail on her and walked back to the rest of the team.

After a minute of glaring petulantly at his back, Lucy followed.

* * *

“We’re gonna need to play this smart,” Keith shot a pointed look at Lucy. “Lance’ll be on Zarkon’s main ship, no question. Can I trust you guys to not spazz out if or when we actually find him?” Another pointed look at Lucy.

“It’s Lance,” said Lucy. “I’ll do anything to find him.”

Keith’s eyes were guarded. “Okay,” he said. “Pidge?”

Katie exchanged a brief glance with Lucy, who grimaced and looked away. Lucy heard the other girl mutter a quick “yes”. 

They all looked at Hunk, who shook his head, eyes wide. “Don’t look at me,” he said. “I really don’t want to die yet. Not that–“ he interjected quickly before Lucy could berate him again. “I’m not coming. I am. But I’m not going to do anything stupid.” 

Lucy glared at him with veiled frustration, but she said nothing else of the subject. “We’re going,” Lucy said quickly. “There’s nothing else to it. If we need to form a plan, then so be it, but there’s no way that I’ll let Lance be subject to some evil overlord’s torture.”

Keith looked at her measuredly. “It’s okay. We’ll get him back.” His eyes were unbearably soft on hers. Lucy looked away.

“Hey,” Katie said gently. “Lu, we’re with you. We won’t let anything else happen to him. Never. Forever and always, right?” She held her pinky out, her eyes shining with tears.

Lucy brushed the tears out from her eyes and hooked her pinky with Katie’s, managing a small smile for the other girl. She shook it once, reminiscent of a time where they only had each other and Lance. Three against the world. “Forever and always,” she breathed.

Keith was looking at her oddly again, as if he had never seen her before. She managed a smile for him too, and his expression locked again like an iron door. He looked away from her. “The best plan would be to split up,” said Keith. “Like we did when retrieving the red lion from Sendak. I’m the most skilled, so I should be the one going inside.”

“I’m coming.” Lucy said.

“Me too.” Katie, her eyes fierce.

“Whoa, whoa. You’re gonna make me keep watch alone?!” Hunk cried. “So not fair!”

Keith shook his head. “Pidge, you keep watch with Hunk and see if you can hack some of the ship’s technology from the ship. Lucy and I can handle this on our own.”

Katie’s eyes flashed. “What?! But I–?”

Keith cut her off. “We can’t afford to lose you Pidge. You’re more valuable to the team off the battlefield.”

Katie looked outraged. “I’m… I’m not a _child_! I can handle myself!”

“I never said you couldn’t,” Keith said measuredly, his patience waning. “But your strengths lie elsewhere. Lucy and I will be fine.”

Katie’s eyes went hopelessly to Lucy. “But,” she whispered, her honey colored eyes wide and distressed. “It’s _Lance_ ,”

Lucy pulled the younger girl into a hug. “I know. We'll bring him home safe.”

Katie gripped Lucy’s hands tightly in her own small ones, so much strength in those tiny fingers. Her eyes were determined, clear, focused. “I know you will.”

* * *

Lance woke up in a dank, dark cell. He was hungry, bitter and heartbroken. The only damn light in this goddamn place was a freaking green thing coming from a slit on the wall, and that only gave off enough light to see the large hole in his jeans, directly on the knee. He remembered. He had scraped it a long time ago playing tag with Pidge and Lucy. _Lucy_. The pain came again, this time stronger.

The red paladin curled in on himself further. Did he really want to see her again if she came for him? Did he really want to put himself in more pain knowing he had bared his heart and soul to her, while she pined after a man she had just met? He knew the answer even if he didn’t like the answer. Yes. Of course. He and Lucy were family.

She would come for him. He knew it now. It was _Lucy_. She was as stubborn as a rock, and when it came to her family, she’d do anything.

He just didn’t like what could happen to her if–when–she came. She’d be facing the evil overlord himself, the most gross of gross, the most evil of evil.

Lord Palpatine in the flesh.

“Please be safe, Lu,” Lance whispered in the confines of his cell.


	21. Emperor Palpatine Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bringing back the Star Wars titles because why not? It’s funny...at least to me. Haha... I’m not funny. Ugh, just read the chapter!!!

“ _Pidge!_ Pidge!”

The voice that came through the intercom was frantic, and after awhile, Pidge realized that she hadn’t spoken in some time, hadn’t responded to Keith’s proposed query. The green lion rumbled in worry, but she silently calmed her with a sweep in her mind. Green seemed uncertain, but she left it alone. Piercing eyes much like Keith’s own bore into hers as the black lion came into view. Lucy’s lion appeared behind Keith’s, and due to the connection between the lions, Pidge felt the other girl’s pressing concern like an incessant buzzing. She didn’t remember the question, almost as if she had just woken up and Keith and Lucy had been standing over her.

“I’m okay,” she replied, her voice unnervingly even. She felt Lucy’s hesitance and concern like the pulsing light of a firefly. A wave of emotion exuded from Keith, but it was gone before Pidge could discern what it was.

“ _Okay_ ,” Keith answered. There was something unsaid, Pidge felt it hovering in the air, felt it in Lucy. She didn’t know how, but Pidge knew he was still watching her, in that unnervingly knowing way of his. She could still feel Lucy’s overwhelming emotions through the bond, and wondered if the other girl could feel hers. Pidge hoped not.

“I’m seriously okay,” Pidge said again. “You guys don't need to worry about me. I’m not some little kid.”

Lucy’s melodious voice swept through the intercom, still raspy from crying. “ _Katie, it’s okay to be upset. I know how much Lance–_ “

A swell of anger surged through Pidge. “I said leave it _alone_ , Lucy!” she snapped. “Stop treating me like a child.”

Pidge knew she was being hard on the other girl, knew it as she felt the surprised betrayal surge through Lucy’s end of the bond. The familiar bout of guilt began pooling in Pidge’s stomach, but she held her own. Lucy, as much as Pidge loved her, was painfully oblivious at times. She needed to know that Pidge could take care of herself, that she didn’t need to dote on her like some baby. She needed to know that she wasn’t the only one who cared about Lance. At the thought of Lance again, pain and worry shot through her, as well as an irrational bout of anger towards Lucy for bringing them into this.

“ _I’m so sorry, Katie_ ,” Lucy said sincerely.

Pidge’s knuckles turned white under the gloves, but she let out a sigh. Lucy didn’t deserve to be yelled at. Not at such a crucial time.

“It’s okay,” said Pidge. “It’s just not the time. When we find Lance, safe and sound, we can talk one on one.”

She had the feeling Lucy wanted to say more, but the other girl refrained from doing so, perhaps upon realizing what had just materialized before them. Keith cursed under his breath as a giant ship came into view, a demolished looking planet acting as a morbid backdrop of sorts. Suddenly, all Pidge felt was a fearful sort of rage, an encompassing anger and hatred towards Lance’s captor, also feeling her friend’s’ anger through the woven bond between the lions.

“ _Keep calm, guys_ ,” said Keith, but Pidge could hear the anger in his voice. “ _This isn’t a training simulation. I know you guys have been trying your best, and I just wanted to say…_ ” his voice trailed off, and Pidge might have been inclined to say he had feelings if she wasn’t so worried about Lance. “ _...thank you._ ” Keith replied finally. “ _It’s… an honor fighting with you all._ ”

“You too, Keith,” Pidge replied. “You too. Now go bring him back safe.” She hoped the raw emotion she plainly heard wasn’t as audible to the young leader.

“ _I will_ ,” said Keith. “ _Lucy? You ready?_ ”

“ _I am_ ,” the girl said, her voice like steel. Pidge knew without seeing that Lucy would have that fearless, determined gleam in her eyes, her chin tilted defiantly and her lips and jaw set in stone.

If Pidge were being honest, Keith sounded impressed. “ _Then let's do this_.”

* * *

Was she nervous? Of course. As she exited the safety of the blue lion and the monstrosity of Zarkon’s ship loomed ominously over her and Keith, Lucy felt her heart pound ceaselessly loud in her ears. She and Keith remained suspended in space for a brief second before Keith looked at her in confusion, eyes flitting to her backside before they returned to her own gaze. He was frowning in his helmet, and his eyes didn’t gleam like they did when they were up close. “You remember how to activate the jet?” He asked with an arched eyebrow.

Lucy crossed her arms. “Of course I do.” She huffed in annoyance.

A hint of a smile crossed Keith’s lips. “Just checking,” his eyes shifted to the shift, the black irises turning hard and battle ready. They searched expertly for a way in, and when they stopped, Lucy guessed he had found one. “We should get out of the open like this,” Keith said, reaching for her.

Lucy yanked her arm back with an offended look towards her companion. “I can do it myself.” She said.

Keith’s expression didn’t change, but he removed his hand. “I never said you couldn’t,” he said. Lucy replied with a look towards his direction before activating the jetpack on her back, leaving Keith behind her. She didn’t need to look back, but she did upon feeling the sudden urge to, only to realize that there was a slight smile playing on his lips as he caught up to her. Lucy tilted her head in confusion.

“What are you laughing at?” She asked, perhaps a little more harshly than she meant to.

Keith shook his head but offered no answer. Lucy rolled her eyes with a scoff.

“ _I’ve gotten into the system_ ,” Katie’s voice flooded the intercom. “ _Just give me a few more seconds and we’ll be good to go…_ ”

“ _Be careful okay, guys?_ ” Hunk said. “ _Pidge and I’ll have your back._ ”

“It’s all good, big guy,” Keith replied, shifting his gaze to Lucy. “Lucy and I’ve got this. No need to fear.”

Lucy smiled at the fear she felt from Hunk over the bond. The gentle giant was worried, but who could blame him? She tried to send as much comfort she could over the bond before shifting her attention back to Katie’s lion. “How’s it going over there, Katie?”

“ _Almost got it… and… yes!!! I got sight of basically the entire ship! You guys should be good; Hunk and I’ll tell you when you run into sentries and other nasties. Hunk, I’m giving you access to the feed okay? Right… now._ ”

A beat of silence, and then. “ _Whoa, cool! Pidge, you’re amazing! We’ve got view of the entire castle thing_!”

Katie sounded smug. “ _I told you I could do it._ ”

Keith sported a small smile. “I never doubted you, Pidge. Good work.”

“ _Stay safe, guys._ ” she said. “ _And Lucy?_ ”

Lucy perked up. “Yes, Katie?”

“ _When you find him, take it easy okay? He’s been through a lot._ ”

Lucy felt that guilt begin to set in again. “I will,” she said softly but steely. “I promise.” Katie’s relief came through the bond like a bullet tearing through flesh. Lucy didn’t know why, but she nodded, knowing Katie couldn’t see her. Newfound determination surging like liquid fire through her veins, she turned to face Keith, who looked at her inscrutably, his eyes glinting a steady violet. “Let’s go.”

* * *

Adrenaline pumping like the blood through her veins, Lucy dropped into a dark hole behind Keith, following his seemingly effortless movements. Once in a while he would glance behind him at Lucy, slowing his pace for her. While a part of her was grateful for his consideration, another, larger part of her scoffed at the chivalry.

“You know,” Lucy huffed as she hastily accepted his help for the umpteenth time. “You don’t need to slow down for me. I’m not helpless.”

He looked back at her, a half smile resembling amusement playing on his lips. “Yeah?” He asked. His eyes darkened, the half smile fading. Keith shook his head, his dark eyes studying her fiercely before he returned to running, Lucy on his heels. “Well I’m not taking that chance, Lucy. I’ve lost people because I wasn’t careful and I won’t lose you now. If, and I mean _if_ we make it out of here alive, I’ll consider upping your training.”

Lucy rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to retort. “We could split up. Cover more ground.”

“It’s still no,” Keith said without turning around. “That’s a _definite_ no. You’re not ready to keep up with me, and I’m not willing to leave you behind.”

“But Lance–“

“Yes, Lance’s life depends on us, but if we split up, there’s a greater chance you’ll get kidnapped as well. Then we’re down two paladins. I’m not taking that risk.”

Lucy’s sigh echoed dangerously loud, her feet making a satisfying slapping noise as they ran down the purple tinted hallway.

“ _Guys, look out!_ ” Katie’s voice, shrill and panicked, ripped through the intercom like a siren call.

Keith glanced back at Lucy again before he suddenly was barreling towards her, pushing her unceremoniously into a connecting hallway. Lucy knew well enough not to protest, and sure enough, a group of Galra sentries passed the hallway, leaving Lucy and Keith panting and wide eyed behind them.

Lucy became suddenly aware of her proximity to the leader, his heartbeat echoing fast and loud in her ear. Her face flushed, and she hastily pushed off of him. When she met his gaze, she could have sworn there was something lingering there in his dark eyes before it was gone in the blink of an eye, leaving behind a slightly endearing, but not nearly as intense blush on his cheeks.

“Thanks,” Lucy said. “You too, Kate.”

He dipped his head in response, obviously trying to cover up his clear awkwardness with brusqueness. Keith may have been a badass space renegade, Lucy thought to herself, but he was definitely still a teenage boy. He was also, she noted, avoiding looking at her, the stoic war expression he always used steadfastly back on his face. Lucy listened as the footsteps of the sentries faded away, watched as Keith’s posture relaxed a little more. He glanced at her.

“Come on,” said Keith. “We don’t have much time.”

Lucy followed him back into the hallway, quickly adjusting to his fast pace yet again. They ran in silence for a few more minutes before Keith began to take notice of Lucy’s slowing and her quickening breath. He glanced back at her briefly, then slowed down. Lucy shook her head, weakly waving her hand.

“I’m fine,” she protested. “We have to keep going.”

“We’re taking a break,” Keith replied, slowing to a halt and walking back towards her. His eyes glittered in the dark. “You look exhausted.”

Lucy shook her head again. “No,” she breathed. “We have to...we have to…”

Her heart fluttered in the most unprofessional way when Keith touched her hand in what may have been a gesture of comfort. _Traitor_ , she told it, and thought about Lance again. Guilt returned and she welcomed it readily. “Lucy,” he said, voice soft–unbearably, irrationally soft. “Lucy look at me.”

She shook her head petulantly, feeling the weight of his eyes on her. She shouldn’t have been feeling this way, not while Lance was still out there, not while Lance loved her.

Lucy felt a hand on the side of her face, felt it push carefully but firmly to where Keith’s voice was coming from. “Lucy, come on. You’re too stubborn for your own good.” Perhaps it was a childish need to rebel and perhaps it was her own unyielding stubbornness, but Lucy still did not look. The hand on her face tightened, moved to her chin. His voice was just as tight, a rippling undercurrent of something reminiscent of worry resounding throughout it. “Lucy, look at me. _Look_ at me.”

She did.

He relaxed and dropped his hand, and after another cautious look around them, Keith snatched her hand and pulled her into another hallway. When he looked at her again, Lucy was surprised to see that the anger had fled, leaving behind a noticeable sympathy in his mesmerizingly dark eyes. “You need to relax,” he said.

“How?” she shot back. “How can I _possibly_ relax when Lance is somewhere out here, probably hurt and you want me to waste time resting?!”

He looked exasperated, pinching his nose with a hand. “It’s not–ugh! It’s not wasting time,” Keith hissed at her. “You are _exhausted_. You need to take some time for yourself.”

“I can’t be selfish now,” Lucy replied, irritated. “Lance is relying on me. I can’t just give up.”

Keith shook his head. “You’re not giving up,” he said. “Trust me, this isn’t giving up. We’re just taking time to recharge, that’s all.”

“We don’t have time for that.”

“Why are you so adamant about this? If we’re gonna fight the Galra, we’re gonna need to stay cautious. We have to be ready here, Lucy.”

“I _am_ ready!”

“No you’re not. You’ll just get yourself hurt if you rush into this head on.” Keith stared at her.

“I don’t understand why you’re fighting me on this!” Lucy cried. “A few days ago, you didn’t give a damn about me, and now you do?! This is my best friend, my _brother_ , and you want me to relax?! Imagine if it were someone you love in this position. Wouldn’t you give _anything_ to save them?!”

Keith went silent, his expression guarded. “I would have,” he said. “A long time ago. But years on your own teach you something, Lucy. Something valuable. I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again: love is a weakness. It can get inside your head, make you impulsive. It’s not your friend, not in a war.”

Lucy shook her head. “That’s not true. It can’t be true.”

A flash of pain crossed his face before it faded. “I’ve been in this a long time, Lucy. Trust me. It’s true.”

Lucy paused, and looked closer at her companion, saw the pain in his umber eyes, the hidden vulnerability that he never allowed anyone to see. “What happened to you?” She breathed softly. “What is it that made you so resistant? What is it that made you lose all faith?”

He didn’t look at her. “Zarkon killed my family.”

Lucy shook her head. “That’s not all,” she pushed. “There’s something else. You’re afraid. You’re afraid of something.”

Keith shook his head, starting back in the opposite direction. “We should keep going,” he said dismissively. “Find your Lance and get the hell out of dodge.”

She hurried her pace to keep up with him. “Keith, you can tell me. I want to help you–“

He whirled on her eyes ablaze with righteous fury. “ _Why?!_ Why would you want to help me, Lucy?! You don’t know me, you don’t need to know me. Why do you care so goddamn much?!”

She stood her ground and blinked once. “Because no one deserves to live without love, Keith,” she said quietly. “It’s too sad.” And with that, she passed him, continuing on her way without looking back at his expression.

* * *

Keith was pretty sure that Lucy was ignoring him, though he wasn’t really sure why as he didn’t really think he actually did anything wrong. At least not this time. Her head of platinum hair was tied carefully back into a large bun, the huge thing’s bobbling movements quite distracting. Keith hated that he wanted so badly to see her eyes, hated that he wanted to shake her until she told him what was wrong and how he could fix it. He hated how much she had grown on him.

Keith sighed. “Are you upset with me for some reason?”

She glanced at him, crystal eyes thoughtful. “No,” she said as an afterthought. “I was just thinking.”

“Oh yeah?” Keith said. “About what?”

Lucy sent him a glare over her shoulder. “Why are you so curious?”

Keith rolled his eyes. “I was just asking.”

“Why?”

“Why do you care?”

She frowned. “No reason,” said Lucy. “It’s just unlike you, that’s all.”

“What? It’s unlike me to ask about you?”

Lucy’s gaze was unreadable, her hands falling to the pendant around her neck. A nervous habit, Keith inferred. “Yeah,” Lucy said. “I always thought you hated me. You never really cared before.”

Keith thought about it for a second, and now that he considered it, he really didn’t hate Lucy at all anymore. She was stubborn, yes, and impulsive, but she was fiercely loyal. She had spunk and fire, but somehow still managed to be inhumanly kind. “No,” he decided. “No I don’t hate you.”

She blinked at him dumbfoundedly, and a small blush mounted itself on her pronounced cheekbones. But, Keith reasoned, it could have been the lighting. Yeah, it was the lighting. Lucy smiled at him. “Alright,” she said. “Well, if you must know, I was thinking about Lance.”

“Okay,” said Keith. “Fair enough. You’re worried. That makes sense.”

“How are we gonna find him?”

Keith sniffed, eyeing her carefully. He wasn’t entirely sure how Lucy was going to take this. “There’s someone here. Someone I've been looking for.”

“You have a hidden man? Someone on the inside?” Lucy asked, her eyes bright and surprised. “Why didn’t you tell me in the first place?”

Keith sighed, his heart, for the first time in a long time, beating hard in his chest. He wondered when it was that this girl’s opinion began to matter so much to him.

“Because,” Keith said. “He’s Galra.”

* * *

Lucy stared at him. Keith didn’t think she understood the severity of the situation.

“Galra?” She parroted bleakly. “What do you mean he’s Galra?”

“I mean he’s purple, has big furry ears, has unusual strength and a morbid sense of humor,” Keith deadpanned.

“But Galras are the bad guys,” Lucy reasoned, her voice becoming shrill. “Why would your inside man be Galra?”

“Not all Galra are bad, Lucy,” Keith told her, knowing that she wouldn’t understand. His heart sank: she wasn’t taking this well.

Her eyes flashed. “Not all Galra are bad?” She repeated in disbelief. Lucy let out a mirthless laugh. “They _destroyed_ Altea! They _killed_ your family! They...they did things that are so horrible that I can’t even _remember_! How can you possibly say that not all Galra are bad?”

Keith pursed his lips. “Because I know them. Look, Lucy, the Galra we’re going to see is a part of a resistance called The Blade of Marmora. Not everyone agrees with the way Zarkon is running the universe, even some of the Galra, and if we have any chance at beating him, we’re going to need The Blade’s help. Luckily, I was a member once. They’ll listen to me.” His heart skipped a beat. _Please don’t ask. Please don’t ask._

Luckily, she merely looked at him strangely and nodded. “Alright,” Lucy said. “I trust you.”

Keith let out a breath of relief. “Okay. Now, if I know anything about Galra ships, it’s that the control area should be towards the front. That’s where we should find Brock.”

“I take it we’ve been heading there for a while?”

“I sure hope so,” Keith replied. Lucy raised an eyebrow, looking as if she were about to strangle him. He smiled at her half-heartedly, and raised a hand in surrender. “Kidding,” he smirked. “Just kidding. It’s this way.”

Lucy smirked. “Keith Kogane tells a joke,” she said. “It must be a rare occasion indeed.”

Keith shook his head playfully, rolling his eyes. “I’m actually a real jokester,” he said. “The other blades think I’m hilarious.”

Lucy raised her eyebrow again, scrunching her nose dubiously. “Really?”

Keith snorted. “No. I can’t tell a joke to save my life.”

Lucy laughed at him, a funky, lighthearted sound out of place in the dark ship. Keith almost found himself laughing along with her, enjoying the sound of her uninhibited mirth for once.

“You should smile more, Keith,” Lucy said softly. He looked at her, only to find her crystal blue eyes, unwavering, so very strong yet so very soft, locked onto his. She smiled at him. “It suits you.”

Keith wasn’t sure she was right. But, a traitorous part of him, one that he made sure was bound and gagged a long long time ago, told him that it didn’t matter, that she liked it when he smiled and so he should smile more.

He didn’t really know what to think of that, nor the emerging part of him that wanted to succumb to her, to this fierce little girl’s every whim, even something as small as that.

* * *

Brock was a soldier through and through, had known Keith’s mother well, or so he said. When Lucy and Keith made it to the control room, he was quick to dispatch the Galra who were “working alongside him,” much to the distaste of Keith’s Altean companion.

“You killed them,” she said.

Brock narrowed his yellow eyes at her. “No I didn’t,” he said. “I knocked them out. And good thing too; they would have reported you two to Zarkon right away.”

Lucy frowned at him, her eyes sharp as icy blue daggers. “And how do we know you won’t report us to Zarkon? After all, you may have been on Altea when he demolished it. Maybe you even slit Alfor’s throat yourself.”

“ _Lucy_!” Keith cried, outraged. Brock cut him off with a simple wave of his hand. His gaze was on Lucy, his body coiled for a fight. Keith tensed his muscles, ready to protect her if need be. Lucy wasn’t looking at him, though. Her eyes were on Brock, stance determined and fierce. Keith wouldn’t have been surprised if _she_ was part Galra as well; she certainly had the ferocity of one.

To Keith’s surprise, Brock merely unsheathed his sword, and showed Lucy the symbol of the blades. She stared at it dispassionately. “This is a sword,” he rumbled. “Forged in fires hotter than the middle of your Earth. It was made for Galra hands, true, but it was never made to kill innocents. I was not there when Zarkon took Altea, nor did I support him in his choice. The Blades of Marmora do not support Zarkon in any way and we will do anything to see that his reign of terror comes to an end. If I have to die to make you see that, little girl, I will.”

Lucy’s eyes didn’t soften, but her protective stance lessened a bit. She stared down the Galra, which was rather hard to do considering he was twice her height. “My name isn’t “little girl”,” was all she said. “It’s Lucy.”

Brock guffawed, a hint of a smile creeping on his lips. “I think you’d do just fine against Zarkon if, in fact, it was a battle of mental strength,” Brock said. “...Lucy.”

* * *

“We need some help, Brock,” Keith said. “We’re trying to find someone. Someone ... uh...essential to beating Zarkon.” Keith flinched. Lance the weasel boy wasn’t exactly the best choice for an esteemed paladin of the most powerful weapon in the known universe, but he was chosen, strangely, and so he was, oh geez, esteemed. Brock didn’t seem to notice Keith’s discomfort, however, merely nodding in agreement.

“Okay,” the elder Galra rumbled. “Just how valuable is this person that he wound up in Zarkon’s main ship?”

“Very,” Lucy piped in. “He’s a paladin of Voltron.”

Brock’s eyebrows shot skywards. “Voltron? Alfor’s creation? Keith, you never told me that you had Voltron in your possession!”

Keith nodded, shooting a glare at Lucy. He didn’t exactly need praise right now. What they needed was to find Lance quickly.

“Yeah, right,” the black paladin said dismissively. “Anyways, do you know where they keep the prisoners?”

Brock shrugged, kicking a knocked out Galra soldier absentmindedly. “Sure,” he said. “It’s not too far from controls. I’m sure I could take you there.”

Lucy crossed her arms, glaring at the elder Galra. “This seems too easy,” she said, much to Keith’s annoyance. “How do we know you aren’t just taking us to Zarkon? How are we going to get past the guards? How are we even going to get to the red lion?”

Brock smiled half heartedly, keeping his patience much to Keith’s surprise. If there was anything Lucy was good at, it was irritating people. “All very valid questions, my small friend. I may not be able to answer all of them, but the second one, you may be able to help us with.”

Lucy looked bewildered. “What do you mean?”

Brock lightly touched the pink mark under Lucy’s left eye, and though it was purely platonic, Keith felt an irrational sort of envy coarse through him. He pushed it down. “You’re Altean and he’s Galra,” Brock said. “You’ll be able to camouflage and Keith here’ll be able to hide under armor. He’s also well trained. No one’ll know the difference.”

Keith’s heart stopped. There it was, out in the open. Lucy turned to him, her eyes filled to the rim with disbelief, surprise, and maybe even the slightest bit of mistrust. Her mouth twisted. “You’re what?” She asked softly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DUN DUN DUNNNNNN


	22. Emperor Palpatine Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no excuse. I suck.

Brock stared at them both blankly, not quite understanding. Keith could not say anything, could only stare at Lucy who was shifting back and forth between betrayal and distrust. Her mouth curled in hurt, Keith could see it in her eyes as well. His heart sank.

“You’re Galra too?” She asked, her voice raw. Keith nodded, not wanting to look at her.

Brock glanced between the two. “You didn’t know?” He asked Lucy. “He was a part of The Blades for a long time, has been ever since he was little.”

“And it’s… it’s a Galra only group?” Lucy asked, her voice shaken, crystal eyes colored with hurt.

“Only Galra can activate the blades.” Brock answered.

Lucy’s gaze drifted to Keith’s belt where his blade rested, the Blade of Marmora symbol glowing like a brand. Her mouth curled in disgust. Disgust for him and what he was. Keith felt a pain swell in him again, a mental sort of pain that after his family had been taken from him, that he had been certain he would never feel again. He would take beatings over this, he thought to himself. He would take blow after blow, strike after strike, anything but that look Lucy was giving him. _Ostracism_. The one most people bestowed upon _monsters_. Was that what he was? A monster?

Lucy looked away, her eyes shadowed in doubt and hurt. “Take us to Lance,” she said calmly, her expression locked once again like an iron gate. Brock nodded, motioning for Lucy to camouflage herself. Keith was about to tell him that Lucy didn’t know how to use her abilities when suddenly Pidge’s voice came through the intercom again, shrill and panicked.

“ _Keith, Lucy! They’re coming!_ ”

The door swung open with force and a flood of Galra soldiers swarmed the control room, quickly separating the trio. Keith fought back immediately, kicking and punching to free himself, only pausing when two more figures entered the room, one large and one small, but both unmistakably familiar. Keith snarled animalistically. “Zarkon.”

Across from him, the sea of Galra soldiers parted, and the massive figure stepped forwards, towards Brock whose lip curled in undisguised disgust. Brock fought pointlessly against his captors as the hulking Galra neared him, his glowing purple eyes unnatural and cruel. “Ah, Brock,” Zarkon said, a slight twinge of amusement to his deep voice. “I had suspected for a long while that we had a usurper in our midst and I had suspected for nearly as long that it had been you. I just had to wait until the perfect moment to strike, and what’s more perfect than now?” He smiled thinly, directing his gaze to the witch by his side with a small smile gracing her lips. “Kill him. We have no more use of him.” Haggar’s smile widened into a toothy grin, her hand glowing purple with her dark magic. She said nothing as Brock’s eyes widened, said nothing when her hand extended, the magic she spouted blowing a hole into his head with a sickening splat. She said nothing as purplish pink brain matter splattered on the wall, intermingled with copious amounts of blood, She said nothing as the corpse toppled to the floor, as Keith stood there motionless, as Lucy cried out once in shock. Haggar stepped back, her glowing eyes resting on Keith mockingly.

Zarkon seemed unperturbed, simply stepping over the body of Keith’s fallen companion, heading towards him and Lucy. His eyes glittered excitedly. “The black and the blue paladins here on my ship, Voltron within my reach. Did you really think that you would be able to save your friend without me knowing?” He asked, directing his piercing gaze to Keith now. His head tilted. “Keith Kogane. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen you in person. You’ve certainly grown from the scrawny boy I last saw. Perhaps even into a formidable adversary.”

Keith growled at him. This seemed to amuse him.

“Hey! Overgrown furry!”

Keith shut his eyes. _No, Lucy, no. Please just shut up_.

Zarkon whirled around to face the slight Altean girl with the silvery blonde hair, pink paladin armor and heart of fire. Her crystal blue eyes, as usual, held an inextinguishable fire in them, and a hatred beyond compare. She, as well as Keith, was being held back by Galra soldiers, though her definitely less than the former. They underestimated her. She could get out. This provided Keith with some small aspect of comfort.

“ _What_ did you call me?” Zarkon asked. Behind him, Haggar hovered, her hands brimming with magic. Hatred like no other coarsed through Keith at seeing her threatening his friend, and as if she could read his mind, the Altean witch turned to face him, smirking provocatively.

“You heard me,” Lucy said without falter, titing her chin stubbornly up in the air. Her eyes narrowed into ice blue slits. Fearless, she was. Keith didn’t know whether or not to be proud or outraged. Didn’t know if she was stupid or brave. Perhaps both.

Zarkon twitched his hand, not taking his reptilian eyes off Lucy. “Take Kogane away,” he growled angrily. “I want a word alone with this one.”

Keith’s blood boiled, his vision going red, anger boiling over. “NO!” He bellowed, fighting against his restraints. Some part of him, small, very small, knew he probably looked quite frightening judging by the fear he saw in Lucy’s eyes. Lucy was looking at him in surprise, her confident facade breaking before his very eyes. She paled, having rarely seen him so enraged. He fought harder. He would not let them take her. “Do _not_ touch her!”

“Keith?” Lucy whimpered, a question Keith could not answer embedded in the single syllable of his name. Lucy, who never showed fear.

Throughout the panic and chaos, Keith saw her glance to the fallen Brock and then back to him in an unspoken question. Keith didn’t answer, struggling against Zarkon’s strongest warriors. Lucy, he realized suddenly, for all her hidden strength and potential, was not raised an Altean, and thus, her powers remained untapped. For the umpteenth time, Keith cursed her human upbringing, wanting so badly for her to fight, if not for Voltron, for herself. Lucy, as if reading his mind, began struggling pointlessly, screaming for release. Keith fought to reach her, but found it becoming harder and harder, like his limbs were slowly heavying and his vision was blurring like a wet watercolor painting, the colors blending seamlessly together. The last thing he saw before his vision went black were two glowing yellow eyes.

 _Haggar_ , his tired mind cursed her name. _Of course._

Lucy’s screams faded. Black. Nothing. Gone.

* * *

Lucy watched helplessly as they carted Keith’s motionless form away, his arms dangling and raven hair flapping like black silk over his face. His eyes were concealed with shadow eyelids almost as dark as the eyes themselves. If it had been different circumstances, Lucy might have been able to convince herself that he was just asleep. She didn’t want him to go, didn’t want to be left here with these people, these murderers with the soulless eyes. She thought that she had seen evil in New York, that robbers and scavengers had the deadest eyes she had ever seen. But they were nothing like these monsters.

No. These monsters made her want to shrink into a ball and hide for all eternity. These monsters made her want to scream and cry and pray to whatever god was out there. But she couldn’t. She had to be strong for her family, for Lance and Pidge and Hunk and even Keith ( _the thought that he could be related to these monsters made her blood run cold_ ). She pushed back the disgust rising in her throat, realizing as she was carted away like a helpless little doll, that she had more pressing things to worry about.

The soldiers carried her none to kindly through the winding hallways of the ship, past many disgusted looking Galra, each one giving her a special hate-filled sneer as she passed them by. Lucy swore that she would never forget their haunting laughter, as Zarkon and the witch carried her through the entirety of the ship, perhaps dragging it on gloatingly. Lucy had never known such humiliation, had never seen such hatred.

She refused, though, to bow her head; however much these people hated her, she would make sure they respected her. She wasn’t a weakling and she refused to be acknowledged as such, even if she was powerless to stop whatever was going to happen to her. Lucy set her jaw as the sentries carted her through the ship, her feet stumbling and her legs entangling. She thought unwillingly of Keith, of the anger she had witnessed when they had killed Brock and threatened to take her. She had never been afraid of Keith before, even when he had yelled at her. But when he fought, especially with his emotions unhinged, he was a force to be reckoned with, an uncontained storm. And now that she knew he was Galra, that he was just like the very monsters that held her captive, she noticed the way his eyes yellowed and his teeth sharpened into fangs.

She noticed the animalistic, inhuman growl that escaped his throat, as if he were protecting a possession. _Her_. It made Lucy shudder, knowing he was like them. Knowing that she had trusted him unconditionally. Wondering if she could still trust him, even after all of this was driving her mad.

Lucy was thrown out of her thoughts with a solid thrust as she was tossed unceremoniously onto the floor, tumbling painfully before coming to a solid halt at Zarkon’s feet. They were in a throne room of sorts, a sloped ceiling above them and infinite stars passing them by, visible through the walls that were windows. Lucy, impartial to her surroundings, simply looked up at Zarkon with a hatred she didn’t know she was capable of.

She thought she had known hatred before but there was nothing compared to this hatred. This very hatred that burned unbidden through her veins and corrupted her heart. Zarkon stared back at her with a similar contempt in his soulless purple eyes. “Lucy,” he rumbled, the name rolling seamlessly off his tongue. “I’ve heard about you. The Altean with no memory, the one that got away. The powerless, scrawny orphan who somehow got herself caught up in a war that you have no part of.” The way he looked at her gave Lucy a chill. He looked at her as if he somehow knew her. Then he smiled unpleasantly. “Lucy,” he said again, slowly, as if enjoying it. “Not a name I would have chosen for you, princess.”

Lucy bristled at the pet name, but Zarkon smiled as if enjoying some kind of inside joke. Lucy hated him. “What did you do to Keith?” She nearly snarled at him.

“Hm? Oh, you mean the halfbreed? He’s out of the way for now.”

“ _What did you do to him?!_ ” She cried, putting all of her anger into the six words. For a moment, it didn't matter what he was. Keith was the only thing here that she knew, and the protectiveness she instinctively felt for him was chilling to her. Especially now that she knew what he was. She should have felt nothing for him.

Zarkon gave her an amused glance, this defiant little Altean who was never raised an Altean. “Nothing,” he answered. “Nothing yet.”

Lucy sprang at him in thoughtless fury, only to be quickly dispatched by the witch, whose yellow eyes bored into her very soul as she remained suspended in the air. Zarkon smiled thinly.

“You might be wondering why I brought you here,” he began, walking around her like a shark circling its prey. Zarkon was in no way a slight man, so it was unusual just how graceful he moved. Lucy couldn’t say anything, only able to dangle there helpless in the witch’s dark spell. “I was simply curious. I’ve heard a lot about you. You, the Altean who escaped me. The sole survivor.” He paused as if considering, then began circling again. “I expected more from you, Lucy. Your powers would be great. Should they not have been squashed by your magic-less upbringing, perhaps you would have been a force to be reckoned with.”

 _You’re a brute!_ Lucy struggled to say. _You don’t know anything about me!_ He seemed to notice her struggles to speak, and his smile grew marginally more amused, like she was a pet that had just misbehaved.

“But, unfortunately,” he rumbled. “You’re just as useless as a human. Just as easily apprehended as your friend. What was his name?” Zarkon tapped his chin thoughtfully with a clawed hand before his piercing eyes locked on hers. “Lance?”

Red hot anger pierced through Lucy’s body and before she knew it, she was free, and thumping to the floor with an ungrateful thud. She didn’t take any notice, however, glaring up at her captor with a spiteful snarl. “ _What have you done to him?!_ ” She spat. “You _monster_!”

If Zarkon was perturbed, he didn’t show it, merely smirking knowingly in reply, like being called a monster was an everyday occurrence. Actually, Lucy thought, considering him and his horrid personality, it probably was. “He’s fine,” he said. “For now. I haven’t done anything to him yet. In fact,” he added as a morbid afterthought. “He’s probably with the halfbreed now. Considering my sentries have deposited him where I told them to.”

Lucy curled in on herself unwillingly, inching backwards slightly from the gargantuan man. “What do you want with me?”

Zarkon held his hands out in a display of mock sympathy. “Simply for you to understand, child. You cannot hope to defeat me, you and your ragtag group of earthlings. You see, I have been ruling this empire for years. There is nothing you can do.”

Lucy shook her head petulantly. “No. That’s not true.”

Zarkon’s eyebrow, or whatever was left of his eyebrow, inched up to the top of his forehead. “Oh? And why is that not true, child?”

“Because you’re a _monster_.” Lucy snarled, her voice a hateful hiss escaping through her teeth. “A _murderer_. And I will never, _ever_ hand Voltron over to someone like _you_.” She spat the last word, putting every inch of her defiant hatred into the single syllable of the pronoun.

Zarkon’s thin thread of patience snapped; Lucy could see it in the angry gleam of his eyes. In two broad strides he had crossed the length of the room, encroaching upon the small space Lucy had taken for herself. With a swift kick, Zarkon’s foot embedded itself in the soft flesh of Lucy’s side, throwing her with unimaginable strength into the wall behind her. Her head slammed against the wall with a resounding crack and Lucy responded with an ear piercing cry. Lucy’s head throbbed in pain, the colors bleeding around her only increasing in intensity. She struggled to plant her shaky hands on the concrete ground and pull herself up to give Zarkon another spiteful glare. He was standing over her, his snarl animalistic.

“Foolish child,” he seethed. “Foolish girl. You will give me Voltron willingly or unwillingly, the choice is yours. The consequences of your choices, however, are perhaps too great to overlook.”

Lucy breathed hard, watching with raw hatred as the smaller figure glided over to Zarkon with an amusing glance to the other Altean, whispering something in his ear before she turned her intelligent yellow eyes to Lucy once more. Haggar smiled thinly.

Lucy glared at them both, spitting crimson blood from her mouth. It dribbled from her lips, and vaguely, Lucy knew she must have looked disgusting; blood spilling from her mouth and coating her lips. She snarled. “Bastard,” she spat at him.

“Be careful with what you call me, girl. Or the next kick will go to your head.” he threatened with a growl.

“ _Bastard!_ ” She screamed. Zarkon sent another hard kick to her side, forcing Lucy to her knees, taking her breath away.

He scowled at her as if she were nothing but a piece of gum on his shoe. “Is that any way to treat your emperor?” He growled.

Lucy looked up at him with a hatred she had never felt before. This was the man who had murdered an entire planet, a family she had never known, friends that she perhaps would never remember. This was the man who enslaved millions, perhaps slaughtered even more. She had been wrong; she thought she had known hatred before, but no. This was raw, this was brutal, this was hatred. _This_ was hatred.

“You’re not my emperor.” Lucy told him through her pulsing pain. “You’re nothing.”

“I am not,” he replied. “And in actuality, even though I am quick to dismiss you, neither are you.”

Haggar looked at him in surprise.

Lucy scoffed at him, sending him a bloody scowl. “What are you talking about?” She asked him.

He came closer, the end of his cape dragging across the floor. Zarkon crept around her, circling her once more like a shark. His unusual patience had returned, the anger gone like it had never existed in the first place. His eyes never left her form, piercing like Keith’s and even more unnervingly uncomfortable. She found herself shrinking under the intensity of his gaze, unable to back away and unable to escape. Trapped, like a wild animal. “You are Altean,” he replied at last. “The very last of your kind. For you and you only, princess, I will make you a deal.”

Lucy glared at him, struggling to bring herself upright so she could meet his gaze head on. She would not be afraid, she could not be afraid. “What kind of deal?” she asked him.

He clasped his hands behind his back, magenta eyes boring into her soul. He smiled, but it was not pleasant. A grotesque parody of mirth played on those dead white lips. “Give me Voltron,” he said. “Give me Voltron and I will allow you to live. In fact, give me Voltron and I will allow your friends to live. If you hand over Voltron, set down your weapons, then I will allow you to walk away. You and your earthling friends will be personally escorted back to Earth. I will not touch the planet either. Your precious earthlings will be free of Galra rule.”

“And if I don’t agree?”

“Then I will annihilate Earth. Your friends will be as good as dead.”

Lucy’s heart sank, her mind desperately searching for a way out, anything alternative to the future that Zarkon promised her. Try as she may, she could not figure out anything; every single scenario that ran through her head ended up with her dead and Earth annihilated. Zarkon watched patiently as she thought, his hands clasped back, his posture soldier stiff.

“Well?” The witch cried shrilly behind her master. “What will it be, child? We haven’t got all day,”

“Silence!” Zarkon snarled, his mouth twisting angrily. “Choose, princess,” he said in a much softer voice though his eyes betrayed his anger.

Lucy looked up at him, thinking about her friends. They would be able to live, she thought, Earth would be freed. They would all be free again, free to have a safe and happy life. Katie could finally go to college, she and Lance could get jobs and Hunk could reunite with his family. And Keith… did he have a family? Could he live on Earth? Assimilate? Would she help him, an alien? An _enemy_ alien? She shuddered. Could they live a normal life? After what they had been through?

But…

_No._

Wasn’t that why she left in the first place? To escape the dull provincial experience? To figure out her purpose? To rise above the humdrum opportunities that life had to offer? She had never fitted in anywhere, too headstrong and impulsive to really stay too long anywhere. She would be lost again, just the poor orphan girl who had lost all memories of her past, who had no idea who she was, who her family had been. Wasn’t that what she was doing here in the first place?

Figuring out who she really was, who she was meant to be?

_No._

She looked at Zarkon again.

This man had done unspeakable things. He had murdered, pillaged, dictated for over a decade. He was evil, and though Lucy was impulsive, she was not going to make a deal with the devil.

Zarkon’s eyes hardened as if he knew what she was about to do, what she was about to choose and in the next split second, Lucy snatched a blade from his belt, and pushed herself to her feet, pointing the tip of the blade directly at Zarkon.

* * *

Keith woke up in a dingy cell, a dim purple light radiating from slight cracks in the metal door. He became immediately aware of his hands, bound behind him by a mechanical device. The metal dug uncomfortably into his hands, chilling him with its coldness. Keith shook his head indignantly, tossing back some of the unruly raven strands that dangled in front of his eyes. He thought immediately of Lucy, left at the mercy of those ruthless dictators, those who had killed her entire planet, caused the memories of her childhood to be repressed, locked inside of her head forever. They had already ruined his life by killing Shiro, killing Allura, and now, just as he had found others that didn’t hate him, Zarkon had taken them away too.

He roared in anger, slamming his hands into the floor in a futile attempt to free himself from his prison. Lucy was captured, Pidge and Hunk probably trying to ward off the oncoming hordes of Galra fleets and Lance was somewhere else entirely. Keith hadn’t felt this helpless in a long time, didn’t think it was possible for him to feel like this again. He supposed he had endangered that when he had allowed four gangly earthlings into his life.

And now they were going to die.

Because of him.

 _Why?_ He had asked Lucy a little while ago. How far away that felt now. _Why would you want to help me, Lucy? Why do you care so goddamn much?_

She had looked at him with her oddly penetrating gaze of hers, somehow vulnerable and yet so breathtakingly strong. So very human. She had tilted her chin up in that stubborn manner of hers, and blinked her blue eyes once before answering. _Because_ , she had breathed, and if he hadn’t known Lucy as he did, he would have thought she would shatter before his very eyes with the look she was giving him. _No one deserves to live without love, Keith._ But she was Lucy, and Lucy did not shatter. _It’s too sad_.

Did they think of him like that? Did they truly care? _Why?_

_No one deserves to live without love._

The unspoken “ _not even you_ ” resonated strongly to Keith.

Lucy, who had hated him at the beginning, had briefly thought of him as being worthy of something like love. _Him._ The half Galra hybrid who had done nothing but push people away his entire life because he was _different_ , because he was a _monster_ , because he had let his only family die … was now being given a second chance.

But then she had found out, and the horrible reality that he was trying so desperately hard to conceal from her had broken through, and he hadn’t even been the one to tell her. He had thought, that once she trusted him wholeheartedly, once he was sure she would understand, then he would tell her. But no. She knew now, and it hadn’t been the right time. He hated that now this girl’s opinion had become so important to him, that in the short time he had known her and her family, that she had woven her way into his locked heart and in true Lucy fashion, stubbornly stuck herself there, never to be removed.

He had to prove to her that he wasn’t like them, that he was better. He needed her approval again, now that he had experienced it for a fleeting second. He had to make her see who he was, that he was so much more than what was in his blood, even if he didn’t think highly of himself.

He was at least better than Zarkon, wasn’t he?

Did Lucy know that?

Judging by the look she had given him, full of mistrust and disgust, he didn’t think so. He just didn’t know why it bothered him so very much.

Keith was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts by a sound, a slight rustling coming from his left. He tensed automatically, preparing himself to fight to get out of this goddamn cell. His hands may have been bound but he could still fight with his feet. Keith’s eyes narrowed, remaining locked upon the door. He watched, watched until… nothing came. Keith furrowed his brow in confusion when he heard the sound again, accompanied by a small sigh. It was coming to his right. To his immediate right, past the wall. Another prisoner?

“Hey,” Keith whispered. “It’s okay, we’re gonna get you out. I’m Keith Kogane black paladin of Voltron. I promise I’ll get you out of here.”

Silence. Keith’s heart sunk; was this not a prisoner after all.

“...Keith? Keith is that you?” Came the reply, so blatantly confused. The blatantly confused, familiar voice of someone he had always associated with bad puns, a horrible haircut and a weaselly looking face. He had never been so happy to hear that voice in his life.

Keith let out a laugh, an odd sardonic sound that brightened the darkness of the cell. “Lance?”

**Author's Note:**

> You can pry Dimitri-Keith from my cold dead hands.


End file.
